U.S., Israel strikes in Iran on hold after word of potential deal: Trump

Trump says the U.S. was asked to hold off any further attacks on Iran as peace talks were reportedly advancing Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

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President Donald Trump said the U.S. will hold off new strikes against Iran after the Islamic Republic and other Middle Eastern nations told him they’re working toward a deal.

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Trump said he’d agreed to cancel the attack, “subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL,” according to a post on Truth Social. “Get to work, everybody, and get it DONE.”

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Axios reported earlier that Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had urged Trump to refrain from new strikes, citing people familiar with the conversation. The Saudi Press Agency on Sunday said the kingdom’s de facto ruler stressed the need for dialogue to de-escalate tensions in a call with Trump.

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The U.S. was asked “to hold off any attack in that the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to,” Trump said in his post on Saturday. “This would include the Immediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT, and an end to Iran’s nuclear threat.”

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Israel, which wasn’t party to an initial peace deal in June, has agreed to join him in the commitment, Trump said. A member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, Zev Elkin, told local radio the Israelis are waiting out the latest diplomatic push.

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The U.S. military had been ordered to carry out fresh attacks as soon as this weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. Trump said at a cabinet meeting the same day that the U.S. would be hitting Iran “very hard” in an effort to bring an end to the conflict that’s entered its sixth month.

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“And at some point they’ll say we just can’t take it anymore,” he was quoted as saying.

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The prospect of yet more attacks had ratcheted up worries across a Middle East roiled by waves of tit-for-tat strikes since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on Iran in late February. The stop-start fighting has repeatedly disrupted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil once transited, driving sharp swings in energy prices.

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Brent crude ended last week above US$90 a barrel, compared with below $72 a barrel at the start of July.

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Major OPEC+ nations on Sunday agreed in principle to another token increase in their production quotas for September. The move would complete the theoretical revival of supplies halted in 2023 and give scope to add more barrels once the Middle East war ends.

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U.S. embassies across the Middle East on Saturday warned Americans that they should be prepared for flight cancellations, periodic airspace closures and other travel disruptions as tensions remain elevated.

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A U.S.-Iran truce brokered in June collapsed last month, though the two sides paused strikes again in late July to give diplomacy another chance. That lull ended Tuesday night when Tehran carried out what Trump described as a surprise attack, firing multiple ballistic missiles at a U.S. military base in Jordan.

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The Israeli security cabinet’s Elkin on Sunday told Army Radio there was “some kind of vector toward an agreement between Iran and Oman.” The two nations held discussions last month that sought to reopen the Hormuz strait.

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Elkin expressed skepticism: “We’ll all wait to see if this vector really does become a full agreement, and whether it will be implemented and where it’s all leading.”

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Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held separate calls with his Saudi and Turkish counterparts and Pakistan’s army chief before Trump’s announcement on Saturday.

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Araghchi warned against any “adventurous actions by the U.S. military,” saying Iran was “fully prepared” to respond “decisively.”

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He also told Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud any regional cooperation with the U.S. would draw a decisive and appropriate response from Iran’s armed forces, according to a Telegram post from the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Ministry.

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Iranian-backed Houthis rebels in Yemen have recently opened a new front in the war, threatening shipping in the Red Sea near the Bab el-Mandeb, another shipping bottleneck.

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— With assistance from Dan Williams and Salma El Wardany.

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