Trump delays planned Iran strikes as deal talks advance

Donald Trump said Saturday night that he had called off a potential attack on Iran, tying the pause to a deal he said could be reached rapidly. The shift came after Iran and several Middle Eastern countries asked Washington to postpone military action because the outlines of an agreement had been reached, and some accounts said Israel joined the decision to hold off on an attack.

Trump cast the move as a response to progress with Tehran, saying he was willing to cancel the strike if a deal could be made quickly. He also said the United States had been “locked and loaded” before the cancellation, a sign of how far the White House had moved toward direct military action before the diplomatic opening emerged.

The change in posture followed weeks of sharp escalation. In late July, Trump said the conflict was not over and vowed the United States would “win” as talks faded, while other accounts said he had been briefed on possible strikes on Iran’s energy sites. The confrontation had already spilled into the region, with missile launches at U.S. bases in Jordan and Bahrain and growing fear of renewed U.S.-Israeli strikes. Negotiators were also working against wider stakes tied to the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear program.

The broader conflict was already being tracked as a major regional war. A July 29 update to the CFR Global Conflict Tracker labeled it Iran’s war with Israel and the United States. A February 20 analysis from the Middle East Institute had examined how Iran was considering its response to potential renewed U.S.-Israeli strikes, underscoring that Tehran had been preparing for the possibility of another round of attacks even as Trump said a fast-moving deal could still avert them.