“Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have, as President of the United States of America, cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
“Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail, approved by all parties involved, including the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, and others,” he added.
Trump said the U.S. naval blockade, in place since April, would remain until the agreement is finalised. He said the time and place of the signing would be announced “shortly.”
The announcement came after Trump had threatened Thursday morning to conduct a third round of strikes against Iran. The threat followed renewed U.S. attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday and raised concerns about a possible return to broader war.
U.S. Central Command said forces enforcing the naval blockade had disabled nine noncompliant ships. It said they had redirected 135 vessels that attempted to breach the blockade and allowed 42 ships carrying humanitarian aid to pass.
Before Trump’s latest post, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, speaker of the Iranian Parliament and chief negotiator, warned against further U.S. action. He said “wrong strategies and impulsive decisions” by Washington would “reset the entire board for the worse, explode energy infrastructure and markets and create an endless quagmire that you will be stuck in for years.”
“You will see a different Iran,” Qalibaf said on social platform X. His comments came as Washington and Tehran exchanged attacks for a second day.
On Thursday morning, Trump had threatened further airstrikes and raised the possibility of seizing Kharg Island. The island stores around 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports, according to the article.
“The United States will be hitting Iran (Whose Navy, Air Force, Radar, Anti Aircraft, and all other forms of Defense, together with most of its offensive capability, are GONE!), VERY HARD TONIGHT,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
The latest exchanges followed the downing of a U.S. Army Apache helicopter by an Iranian drone near the Strait of Hormuz. The crew was rescued with the help of an uncrewed Navy drone boat and was reported to be in stable condition.
Despite his threat to seize Kharg Island, Trump acknowledged the difficulty of securing public support for such operations. Military experts cited in the article argued that such action could lead to U.S. service member casualties.
“Look, my preference has always been: Take Kharg Island,” Trump said during his Thursday morning interview with Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.” He later added, “I don’t know that America has the stomach for that.”
Source: The Hill.
