Trump says new Iran talks to begin Monday after calling off strikes

On Saturday, the U.S. president pulled back from threats for a massive attack against Iran

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Published Aug 02, 2026  •  2 minute read

US President Donald Trump arrives to address the nation from the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC on July 16, 2026. Photo by SAUL LOEB /POOL/AFP via Getty Images

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U.S. President Donald Trump said that negotiations with Iran will begin Monday after he decided to hold off on new “disastrous” strikes against the Islamic republic to pursue a deal.

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“Obviously, they don’t want to be attacked. They knew the extent of the attack because they saw it forming,” Trump told reporters on Sunday aboard Air Force One.

“Now what we’re doing is we’re talking to them in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon,” he said, without providing further details of the venue of the talks or the participants.

On Saturday, the U.S. president pulled back from threats for a massive attack against Iran, which he said would have been the biggest since World War II, saying the “perimeter” of a deal was there.

In his comments Sunday, where he explained his decision-making, Trump said that he had been asked by Iran as well as US partners Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to hold off on the strikes.

“When the allies asked to call it off, you’ve got to sort say ‘Well, let’s see.’ And the reason they ask is they think there’s a deal,” Trump said.

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“There’s a deal on (the Strait of) Hormuz, and then there will be a deal on the nuclear, or you might call it the denuclearization of Iran.”

He reiterated that the scale of the planned strikes would have been “the biggest attack since World War II.”

“It would take many, many years to ever build it back if it could — I don’t think it would even be buildable,” Trump asserted.

He said Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman had also urged against the strikes, warning of possible unintended consequences.

“I mean, will they be flooded with people pouring into their country and disaster? A lot of bad things can happen,” Trump said.

The war began on Feb. 28 when the U.S. and Israel launched surprise strikes against Iran, though months of on-off diplomacy have led to periods of relative calm.

A previous ceasefire deal, including the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz — a vital conduit for global energy supplies — fell through, and Iran has since tightened its control over the vital waterway as the two countries resumed attacks against each other in recent weeks.

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