Trump calls off Iran strikes

US President Donald Trump yesterday said he was calling off strikes on Iran hours after vowing to hit the country “very hard tonight” and flagged the signing of a possible deal with Tehran.

Trump threatened new strikes on Iran after the two sides traded strikes yesterday for the second successive day.

However, just hours after his threat, Trump, in his Truth Social, said he cancelled strikes on Iran but said the US naval blockade on Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz will “remain in full force”.

“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,” he said.

Trump said that “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.”

“Time and place of the signing to be announced shortly,” Trump added.

Tehran did not immediately respond to Trump’s latest remarks, but Iran’s foreign ministry said earlier in the day that the ceasefire agreed in early April had been effectively rendered meaningless by the latest US attacks.

Trump has for weeks veered between proclaiming a deal and threatening Iran.

The US president, in his earlier post, also vowed to take the country’s key oil infrastructure.

“At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela,” he said on social media.

Kharg Island is at the heart of Iran’s oil export industry, a lynchpin of the country’s battered economy. It sits off Iran’s Gulf coast, hundreds of kilometres northwest of the narrow, strategic Strait of Hormuz.

Trump talked about a possible seizure of the island earlier in the US-Israeli war in Iran, which began on February 28. A fragile ceasefire has been in place since early April.

However, despite the tough rhetoric, Trump himself appeared divided about whether to proceed with the strikes in a telephone interview with Fox News shortly after his social media post.

He also said he preferred not to hit Iran’s civilian infrastructure, after previously threatening to strike power plants and bridges.

“I’d rather not do it, because once you do that, the people suffer,” Trump said.

In the tit-for-tat attacks before Trump’s latest comments, the US struck targets across Iran early yesterday, and Tehran fired at US bases in the region following Monday’s downing of a US Apache helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian news agencies reported explosions in several cities and said five people were hurt.

Iran’s new body overseeing the Strait of Hormuz yesterday confirmed a complete closure order for the strategic waterway until further notice.

Three Indian sailors on a commercial vessel hit by the United States off the coast of Oman are dead, New Delhi’s shipping minister said yesterday. “It is deeply unfortunate to learn of the tragic incident aboard the Palau-flagged MT Settebello,” Sarbananda Sonowal said in a statement, referring to the strike on the vessel a day earlier.

Meanwhile, Russia, Turkey, China, and Saudi Arabia yesterday reiterated their calls for peace and said the world is suffering from the crisis.

The World Bank yesterday lowered its global growth forecast to its lowest level since the pandemic, warning of the expanding economic impacts of the war in the Middle East on countries around the globe.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent meanwhile vowed to use Iranian funds to pay for damage that the country causes to Gulf allies.