WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a “great settlement” with Iran to end the Middle East war, saying he expected a deal to be signed in Europe in the coming days.
Vice President JD Vance could sign for the United States, Trump said.
Trump´s claim came just hours after he promised fresh strikes against Iran, before saying that he was calling them off as a deal approached. There was no confirmation from Iran.
“We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. Trump said that they would “subject to finalisation of documents, which should get done over the next few days, probably have a signing, maybe in Europe. It´s a great thing.” Trump said the deal meant that “Iran will never have a nuclear weapon” but gave no details of how that would happen.
“It was a big, very big thing, but we have a signing soon, and the documents are in pretty final shape, so we´ll see,” said Trump, adding that he had spoken to regional leaders including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump added that the Strait of Hormuz—a crucial waterway for the flow of oil which Iran claims to have shuttered—would also open once the deal was signed.
“The whole Middle East is happy, and long beyond the Middle East,” said Trump, whose war has caused global oil prices to spike, with inflation hitting a three-year high in the United States.
Trump called Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) Field Marshal Asim Munir “great personalities” during remarks at the Oval Office.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Thursday that Iran has not yet made a final decision on a possible agreement with the US and will not compromise on its “red lines” in negotiations, according to Iran’s IRNA news agency.
Baghaei said reports regarding a time and place of signing the agreement remained speculative and that nothing had been finalised. He added that a large part of the negotiating text had been finalised but the US repeatedly changed its positions during the talks.
The United States and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28. A fragile ceasefire was agreed in April but both sides have traded fire in recent days.
An increasingly frustrated Trump has for weeks veered between proclaiming a deal and threatening Iran, accusing Tehran as recently as Wednesday of “playing us for suckers.”
On Thursday morning, Trump vowed “very hard” strikes on Iran that evening and promised to take the country´s key oil infrastructure in what would have been a major escalation.
”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.
But a few hours later he backtracked, saying in another social media post that “final points have been... approved by all parties involved.”
“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... cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening,” Trump said. Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that Tehran is likely to approve the agreement, though it has yet to give a formal response.
Since mid-March, Trump has repeatedly claimed that a deal with Iran to end the war is close. The two sides have traded strikes throughout the week, straining a ceasefire announced in April.
Still, Iranian and Western sources said earlier on Thursday that efforts to reach an interim deal to end hostilities have intensified.
Three Iranian sources said a political understanding had been reached, but some issues remained to be discussed in detail, including a mechanism for the release of tens of billions of dollars of Iranian oil revenues frozen in foreign banks.
The deal would temporarily ease Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz and end a US blockade on Iranian ports, the sources said. Unresolved questions over Tehran’s nuclear development programme and its stockpile of highly enriched uranium would be left for future talks. It was unclear whether such a deal would satisfy critics within Trump’s Republican Party who say that any agreement must close Tehran’s path to developing a nuclear weapon. Opposition from Iran hawks helped derail a previous effort to secure a deal to open the strait.
Analysts have said Trump is concerned that any deal will be compared with a 2015 agreement that he criticised as overly lenient. Trump pulled the US out of that accord in 2018 during his first term in office.
Trump said on social media the agreement had been approved by “the highest level” of Iranian leadership, as well as other countries in the region including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Earlier on Thursday, President Trump said he has canceled planned strikes against Iran on Thursday, hours after threatening more bombings and a desire to “take” oil export hub Kharg Island.
“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.
Trump said “discussions and final points” have been approved by the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Turkiye, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, and others.
Iran warned Washington that it risked wading into an “endless quagmire” of war and soaring energy prices, after President Trump vowed to launch a new round of airstrikes and to seize an island oil terminal.
Iran´s chief negotiator in talks with the Americans, parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, issued his stark warning after the two sides exchanged overnight fire and Trump threatened that US forces would hit “VERY HARD TONIGHT”.
“Wrong strategies and impulsive decisions will 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,” Ghalibaf said.
“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,” Trump said, in a post on his own social media platform.
General Ali Abdollahi, head of the Iranian military´s central headquarters, warned that “if the United States once again seeks to carry out attacks against heroic Iran, it will receive a harsher response than before, and the flames of war, in addition to creating insecurity in the region, will become more widespread and far-reaching”.
Earlier, in a second straight day of tit-for-tat attacks, Washington had hit surveillance, communications and air defence facilities, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said, while Iran´s Revolutionary Guards announced a “punitive operation” targeting a US base in Jordan and Gulf states reported incoming fire.
Turkiye and Saudi Arabia called for de-escalation, with Riyadh “urging all parties to prioritise wisdom” by resuming peace talks.
China, the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, likewise called for more negotiations on Thursday, with a foreign ministry spokesperson urging the warring parties “to immediately cease military operations... (and) respond to the mediation efforts”.
Iran´s new body overseeing the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday confirmed it “will be closed until further notice”.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent meanwhile vowed Thursday to use Iranian funds to pay for damage that the country causes to Gulf allies. Bessent added that “any tolls paid to the Persian Gulf Strait Authority will be offset by funds extracted from their accounts.” In the attacks before Trump’s latest comments, the US struck targets across Iran on Thursday and Tehran fired at US bases in the region.
Iranian news agencies reported explosions in several cities and said five people were hurt.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it had fired at US military targets at airbases in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain, and attacked the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.
In another headache for Washington, India demanded an end to attacks on Indian ships after the deaths of three Indian sailors in a US military strike on a tanker off Oman as part of Washington’s efforts to blockade Iran-linked shipping.
The US Navy has attacked three ships with Indian crews this week, Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters.
The Kremlin called on the United States and Iran Thursday to restart peace talks and said the new strikes in their war would be bad for the world economy.
“We call on all parties in this conflict to exercise restraint and return to the negotiating table,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, when asked by AFP about fresh attacks.
China “strongly” urged an immediate halt to military operations in the Middle East. “China strongly urges the relevant parties to immediately cease military operations, return to dialogue and negotiation, respond to the mediation efforts of relevant countries, and achieve a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire as soon as possible,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a regular press conference in response to a question about the Middle East situation.
Turkiye called on the United States and Iran to halt their new round of attacks, saying it risked an “escalation” in the Middle East war.
Water supply to villages in southern Iran have been restored after US strikes hit reservoirs, state television reported on Thursday, in what Iranian officials described as a “war crime.” An exchange of fire that took place overnight into Wednesday morning saw US strikes hit two water reservoirs in the town of Sirik, cutting off nearly 20,000 people from access to drinking water.
Iran´s new body overseeing the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday confirmed a complete closure order for the strategic waterway until further notice, after the Revolutionary Guards announced the move overnight.
Kuwait reopened its airspace to commercial traffic on Thursday after the latest volley of Iranian attacks caused a brief shutdown, its civil aviation body said.
Jordan´s military said on Thursday it had intercepted 20 missiles launched from Iran, after Tehran´s Revolutionary Guards announced they had fired at a US command centre in the kingdom.
US strikes overnight Thursday on Iran wounded at least three people at sites in Tehran, Iranian media reported. The strikes were largely focused on southern Iran but the country´s Revolutionary Guards said other sites near the capital were hit including in Karaj, Nazarabad and Pishva.
An 11-year-old girl suffered minor injuries and homes and cars were damaged in Iranian attacks on Bahrain on Thursday, the interior ministry said. Falling shrapnel from drone interceptions “due to the sinful Iranian aggression” caused “the burning of vehicles and damage to homes”, the ministry posted on X, with photos of scorched cars and buildings.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she had discussed the recent escalation in the war with Iran with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, and she reiterated the need for a diplomatic way out of the conflict.
Twenty-two countries including the United States and European nations jointly warned Iran on Thursday to stop attacking people “on our soil”.
Iran´s security services were condemned for their “deplorable” use of international and local criminal gangs for plots in Europe, North America and Australia. “Attempts to kill, kidnap, harass, intimidate, or otherwise attack people on our soil, undermines national sovereignty and international norms. These actions must stop immediately,” the countries said in a joint statement.
The statement was issued by Albania, Australia, Belgium, Britain, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Portugal, Sweden and the United States.
A strike wounded 10 staff members of a hospital in the Lebanese city of Tyre on Thursday, the facility´s director told AFP, as Israeli raids continue in the country´s south.
The X account of the martyred Leader of the Islamic Revolution quoted Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s 2021 remark that “the post-American era has begun.”
Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and US President Donald Trump held a phone call on Thursday in which they reviewed the results of US-Iran consultations that had led to progress on understandings proposed within a negotiating track, the Qatari Emiri Diwan said. Trump told the emir that efforts were continuing to complete final procedures before announcing arrangements to sign an agreement, the Diwan added in a statement.
The mayor of Tehran said Thursday that the state funeral of late supreme leader Ali Khamanei, killed by US-Israeli strikes on the first day of the Middle East war, would be postponed until the end of June or early July.
Iran had earlier said it planned to hold the three-day event in early Muharram, which would have put in early June. But Mayor Alireza Zakani, in a statement carried by the Fars news agency, said the ceremony had been postponed until after the first 10 days of Muharram.
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed an emerging memorandum of understanding with Iran on negotiations, with Netanyahu welcoming Trump’s commitment that any final deal would require Iran to dismantle its enrichment infrastructure and remove enriched material, Netanyahu’s office said.
