Trump says US-Iran talks to begin on Monday, believes Strait of Hormuz deal imminent

JTA – Talks between Washington and Tehran were set to begin on Monday, President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, saying that at the last moment he had cancelled a “massive attack” on Iran at the request of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Iran. 

“It would have been a massive attack. We were all set to go, but when the allies asked to call it off, you got to, sort of say, ‘Well, let’s see’,” he told reporters on Sunday night. Saudi Arabia thought a deal on the Strait of Hormuz was imminent, followed by one on the denuclearisation of Iran, he said, but did not set a concrete deadline for either deal. 

“There is a group of people that would like me to just do it, and there is another group of people that does not want me to do it,” Trump said as he described the ongoing dispute about whether the best next move in the conflict is a military or a diplomatic one. 

“Would I rather make a deal? I am not looking to kill people,” he explained. 

Iran denied any talks were forthcoming. Esmail Baghaei, the foreign ministry spokesperson, told reporters on Monday that Iran was discussing making passage through the Strait of Hormuz more secure, and that Iran was not otherwise sending envoys to any talks or planning on hosting them. “We do not currently have negotiations with America,” he said. 

The region had braced for an expansion of the US-Iran war, with a joint Israeli-American attack, after nearly a month in which the Jewish State had been absent from the fighting. The United States over the weekend warned its citizens to evacuate the Middle East. 

At the last moment the president pivoted, and in a step that appeared to catch Israel off guard, Trump announced on X that he was cancelling the planned strike. It undercut Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s claim last week that he and Trump were in lockstep on Iran. 

“The US is locked and loaded and ready to go against the Islamic Republic of Iran, at levels of military terror, strength, and power not seen since World War II,” Trump said on Truth Social, the social media platform he owns. 

“Despite this, we have just been asked by Iran, and other Middle Eastern countries, to hold off any attack in that the perimeters of a deal have been agreed to,” he said. “This would include the Immediate, Complete, and Total opening of the Hormuz Strait, and an end to Iran’s nuclear threat.” 

Saudi Arabia’s official news agency confirmed on Sunday that Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince who has close business and personal ties with Trump and his family, had appealed to the US president to stand down. 

“The crown prince stressed the need to prioritise dialogue to reduce escalation and the importance of making every possible effort to achieve calm that paves the way for diplomatic solutions, preserves the region’s security and stability, and prevents a wider conflict whose repercussions would affect regional and international security and stability,” the Saudi Press Agency said. 

Iran disputed Trump’s claim, instead saying that it was ready to respond to any attack on the country. 

“The Iranian Foreign Ministry vowed that Tehran will use all means at its disposal to exercise its inherent right of self-defence in the face of the United States’ ongoing violations against the Islamic Republic,” the Fars News Agency said. 

Fars, which is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, the principal power in Iran since the war began, denied any stand-down on Iran’s control of the Strait of Hormuz. 

“Iran’s Armed Forces have staged uncompromising retaliation in the face of each instance of violation, including those taking place in support of illegal vessel movement in the waterway,” the agency said. 

The waterway is critical to the passage of a fifth of the world’s petroleum. Iran has asserted control of the waterway in the wake of the war the United States and Israel launched in February. 

Trump’s statement came after CBS News reported on Saturday that the United States and Israel were set to attack Iran’s energy infrastructure, which would substantially escalate the war. The State Department put out a security alert advising Americans in the region to leave if they could, and to cancel plans to enter it. 

Regional media reported that Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, conveyed warnings through Turkey and Pakistan to regional US allies that it would hit back hard if the US-Israel attack went through. 

Israel appeared to be caught off guard both by the planned escalation and by Trump’s stand-down. “Israel is unaware of a decision to restart full military operations, nor has it been requested of Israel to join any military actions against Iran,” CBS News quoted an Israeli official as saying – even as it quoted US officials as saying that Israel was coordinating with the United States. 

Israel’s government had no comment on Trump’s reported plan to attack the infrastructure, or his stand-down. Flights in and out of Ben Gurion Airport were unaffected. In his Truth Social statement, Trump said, “The country of Israel joins me in this commitment.” 

Trump has multiple times since the war’s launch threatened to escalate the war only to retreat at the last minute, something the Fars news agency noted in a sardonic tone. 

“This narrative seems familiar and repetitive,” it said in a separate report on Bin Salman’s appeal. “Every time Trump has made serious threats against Iranian infrastructure in the past, after Tehran has not backed down, he has claimed that friendly countries have asked him not to do anything.” 

Trump escalated his rhetoric last week as Iran continued to attack ships attempting to transit Hormuz. “We’re going to beat the f***ing s**t out of them,” he told Fox News. 

Trump has since the tentative signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Iran in mid-June asked Israel to stay out of the conflict, including in the wake of the resumption of fighting on 13 July. 

Netanyahu, facing a tough re-election in October, has in recent weeks sought to allay any perceptions in Israel that he had been sidelined by Trump. He met with the president last week. 

“I just finished an excellent meeting with President Trump,” he told Israeli reporters after the meeting. “And when I say excellent, it’s not lip service – a conversation with full cooperation, with mutual support, with the understanding of the joint goal to ensure that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon, and other goals.” 

The roller-coaster ride appeared to unsettle Netanyahu’s colleagues in his Likud Party. “You can say ‘no’ to Trump,” Knesset member Amit Halevi told Kan Reshet Bet, the government-run radio station. “Our commitment is to the security of the State.”