US President Donald Trump said he has called off strikes on Iran planned for Tuesday at the urging of Gulf leaders as “serious negotiations” for a deal to end the war were underway.
Trump said in a social media post on Monday that leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have asked that the US “hold off on our planned Military attack of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was scheduled for tomorrow, in that serious negotiations are now taking place”.
Even so, the US leader said he has instructed the military to “be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached”.
Trump has renewed threats to attack Iran as their fragile ceasefire came under strain. He has warned that the ceasefire struck in mid-April could lapse if Iran did not strike a deal, while shifting parameters for striking such an arrangement.
On Sunday, he said the clock was ticking for Iran and that “they better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them”.
Trump had not previously disclosed that he was planning a strike on Tuesday and offered no additional details in the social media post.
But he again insisted that any deal with Tehran must include Iran giving up its nuclear weapons.
Trump told reporters later on Monday that he was holding off the attack for “two or three days, a short period of time”. “It’s a very positive development, but we’ll see whether or not it amounts to anything,” he said.
Negotiations appear to have largely stalled in the past weeks, with Trump saying that Tehran’s proposal was “totally unacceptable” and that the truce was on “massive life support”.
Axios reported on Monday, citing a senior US official, that Iran’s proposal was insufficient and did not offer commitments about suspending uranium enrichment or handing over its existing stockpile.
The report quoted the US official as saying that Washington would have to continue negotiations “through bombs” if Tehran did not soften its position. Iran, meanwhile, has dismissed American terms as excessive.
Earlier on Monday, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the immediate concern of the negotiations between the US and Iran was keeping the Strait of Hormuz open, but Iran’s nuclear programme remained a central issue, Associated Press reported.
Speaking during a joint news conference with his German counterpart in Berlin, Fidan said much of Iran’s enriched uranium that could potentially be used for a nuclear weapon was buried under collapsed tunnels following attacks in June that the US launched with Israel. The US has said it is closely monitoring any movements around the stockpile.
“At present, there isn’t a situation that poses a real threat,” Fidan said. “But for this to continue, the parties must reach and conclude a nuclear negotiation among themselves.”
Trump, in recent days, has also spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Chinese President Xi Jinping about the Iran war.
The Iran conflict loomed large over the summit between Trump and Xi in Beijing last week, with the White House saying that the two leaders “agreed Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon”.
