U.S. President Donald Trump said he will “hold off” on a Tuesday plan to attack Iran, citing a request from the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Trump added that he’s instructed his leadership to “to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice” if a deal isn’t reached.
He pointed to what he said was regional leaders’ optimism about the prospects of a deal that would be acceptable to the U.S. and allies in the Middle East.
Later in the day, Trump said that this time was “a little bit different” from previous instances when he thought Iran was close to an agreement.
The U.S. leader said that the Gulf states asked him to put off the attacks for a few days, but that the pause could last longer.
“I was asked by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and some others if we could put it off for two or three days, a short period of time, because they think that they are getting very close to making a deal," Trump said.
While reiterating his red line that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, the U.S. president also suggested that if the Gulf states were satisfied with a peace proposal, the U.S. would be, too. He said other countries he hadn’t named had also requested that he hold off on more attacks.
Trump warned Iran on Sunday that the “clock is ticking” to make a deal, otherwise it will face a resumption of the military campaign that has been on hold since last month.
