Trump says Iran talks begin Monday (today) after canceling ‘biggest attack since World War II’
The President says Gulf allies and Iran asked him to give diplomacy more time as negotiators seek to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and revive a June peace framework, though Tehran has not accepted his account or the proposed terms.President Donald Trump said Aug. 2 that negotiations with Iran would begin the next afternoon after he canceled a massive planned U.S. strike, creating a new but uncertain opening toward an end to the five-month war.
Trump said the original planned operation “would have been by far the biggest attack since World War II” and “disastrous” for Iran.
Reuters reported July 31, citing CBS News sources, that U.S. and Israeli officials had been preparing strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure, but Trump did not confirm whether those targets were part of the canceled plan.
Trump said Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Iran had urged him not to launch the attack. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told him regional governments “would much prefer a deal as opposed to an attack, because you don’t know where these attacks lead,” according to the President.
In a Saturday Truth Social announcement, Trump claimed regional governments had reached the “perimeters of a deal” providing for the immediate and complete reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and a guarantee of no nuclear weapons development on the part of Iran. He said Israel had joined his commitment to pursue the agreement and that the attack would remain canceled only if a deal could be completed rapidly.
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