WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has said the United States will resume negotiations with Iran on Monday after cancelling what he described as a planned large-scale military attack, saying regional allies believed a diplomatic breakthrough was within reach.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said talks with Tehran would begin on Monday afternoon but did not disclose where they would take place or who would attend.
“They knew the extent of the attack because they saw it forming,” Trump said. “We’re talking to them in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon.”
Earlier, in a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said Iran and several US allies in the Middle East had urged Washington to delay military action because the broad outlines of an agreement had already been reached.
Tehran has repeatedly rejected previous assertions by the US president that a negotiated end to the conflict was imminent.
Allies Urged Restraint
Trump said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, along with leaders in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, had encouraged him not to launch strikes over the weekend.
“We were all set to go,” he said. “The reason they asked is they think there’s a deal.”
He added that progress had been made on negotiations concerning both the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear programme.
“We’ll just see how it is. We’re ready to go anytime we want… I’m not looking to kill people,” Trump said, declining to set any deadline for reaching an agreement.
Oil Prices Fall After Announcement
Global oil prices fell sharply during Asian trading on Monday after Trump’s comments eased fears of an immediate military escalation.
Brent crude dropped 4.5% to $83.98 a barrel, while US benchmark crude fell 4.6% to $80.74.
Energy markets have remained volatile since the conflict began on 28 February, with traders closely watching developments around the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route through which around one-fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas supplies pass.
Iran Rejects Trump’s Claims
Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency rejected Trump’s assertion that Tehran had asked Washington to postpone military action, describing the claim as “nothing but a new lie”.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said negotiations mediated by Oman on the future of the Strait of Hormuz were “on track for finalisation”, according to Iranian media reports.
Iran’s acting Defence Minister Majid Ibn al-Reza also warned that Tehran regarded every threat from its adversaries as genuine.
“We will neither be caught off guard nor remain passive,” he said.
Trump Reverses Earlier Threats
Trump’s latest remarks mark another shift in his approach towards Iran after issuing repeated warnings of military action.
On Saturday, he said the US was “locked and loaded” and prepared to launch military operations against Iran at levels of force “not seen since World War II”.
He later said he had decided to suspend the attack, arguing that diplomacy offered a better path forward.
During Sunday’s remarks, Trump claimed the cancelled operation would have been “the biggest attack since World War II” and suggested it could have undermined prospects for a negotiated settlement.
He declined to answer questions about whether Iranian energy infrastructure had been among the intended targets.
Earlier this year, Trump also warned that “a whole civilisation will die tonight” if Iran refused peace talks,
Political Pressure at Home
The renewed diplomatic push comes as opinion polls indicate growing public unease in the United States over the conflict and its economic impact.
Surveys showing declining support for the administration’s handling of the war have raised concerns among some Republican strategists ahead of November’s midterm elections.
