WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday that he chose not to authorize a fresh round of American military strikes on Iran after appeals from key Gulf partners, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
According to Trump, U.S. forces had been prepared to launch what he described as “the biggest attack since World War II” on Sunday. But he said he ultimately called off the operation and allowed more room for diplomacy after conversations with regional leaders — among them Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — and following requests from unidentified Iranian officials.
“I said to the crown prince, ‘What would you rather do? Would you rather us do this or not?'” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while returning to Washington from a weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. “They said we would much prefer a deal as opposed to an attack, because you don’t know where these attacks lead.”
Trump spoke with the Saudi crown prince on Saturday, shortly before posting on social media that Middle East allies had reached the “perimeters” of an agreement aimed at ending the five-month-old war.
The comments marked another sharp shift in Trump’s posture toward Iran. Just a day earlier, he said he was “losing faith” in negotiations and issued a stark warning that the U.S. military “will be hitting them very hard.”
On Sunday, Trump again said the potential deal would include reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the vital maritime route that carried roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil and natural gas before the war began. He also said the arrangement would address Washington’s concerns over Iran’s nuclear program.
During its conflict with the United States, Iran has repeatedly targeted vessels attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz without Tehran’s approval.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said Sunday that the Strait of Hormuz “will in no way return to the status it was before February 28th,” referring to the date the war began.
On a call with Iranian state TV, he added that Iran is discussing shipping through the strait with Oman, on the other side of Hormuz, but that there’s no current talk about reopening the crucial waterway.
Trump has announced halts to strikes on Iran on several occasions since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, only for things to unravel and fighting to resume again.
Iran’s defense minister said on X that the country was “neither surprised nor passive” following Trump’s announcement and said the Islamic Republic remains alert in the face of concrete threats from the U.S.
While Iran’s leaders appear united in a war strategy signaling strength and endurance, a struggle for control seems to be brewing within the theocracy’s leadership between those who oppose all negotiations with the U.S. and others who count on military pressure to win at the negotiating table.
The latest proposal would bring sides back to negotiations
Trump on Sunday said he expected negotiations to resume “tomorrow afternoon” but did not detail who would be involved in such talks.
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A regional official said the proposal announced by Trump over the weekend calls for the U.S. and Iran to return to negotiations and continue working out many of the issues that have stymied prior progress on the deal.
The official, who is involved in the mediation efforts, said the proposal calls for reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and halting attacks across the region, including by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, on Arab Gulf countries and Jordan.
The U.S., in exchange, will end its naval blockade on Iran and allow Tehran to export its oil as stated in the tentative ceasefire deal, he said.
No deal has been reached yet but mediation efforts are underway, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the media.
Trump said that Israel is joining his commitment to end the war by implementing the ceasefire deal reached in June. Israel did not publicly comment on the announcement.
Saudis are concerned about Iran’s retaliation
Prince Mohammed, the kingdom’s de facto leader, raised concerns about the U.S. potentially escalating the conflict when he spoke with Trump by phone on Saturday.
The call was “candid and constructive,” according to a person briefed on the call who was not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.
The crown prince conveyed that an escalation in fighting could have a severe impact on the global economy if Tehran responded to a new U.S. bombardment by targeting some of the United States’ Gulf allies.
The call happened before Trump’s social media announcement, the person said. The crown prince sought clarity from Trump on what potential new action he was weighing to take against Iran.
Saudi officials, the person added, have underscored in their engagements with the Trump administration that the kingdom – as well as fellow Persian Gulf energy titans the United Arab Emirates and Qatar – are in a good position to defend against further potential Iranian attacks, but that Kuwait could be more vulnerable to attacks by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.
Trump suggested that his conversation with the Saudi crown prince weighed heavily in his decision to halt his plans to carry out strikes on Iran.
“It would have been disastrous for them. And they didn’t want us to do it,” Trump said. “And frankly, Saudi Arabia didn’t want it either. They thought that a deal is imminent.”
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