Trump says he will hold off on fresh Iran attack in hope of quick deal

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday that Iran is more willing to negotiate, including on its nuclear programme and the Strait of Hormuz, as a result of Washington’s military attacks, according to Al Jazeera.

In an interview with Fox News, Rubio repeated his claims the attacks had destroyed Iran’s navy, air force, missile defences, launchers and weapons-production facilities, and had “severely degraded” its defensive capabilities.

“They still have missiles, and they still have drones, and they can still do damage,” Rubio said. He claimed, however, that Iran no longer had the “conventional shield that they were going to hide behind”.

“And that’s changed the whole dynamic. It’s the only reason why they are now willing and in some cases, seem eager, to do a deal on denuclearisation, to do a deal on the straits. Because we are now approaching them from a position of strength, not from a position of weakness,” he said.

US media say Saudi crown prince spoke with Trump and raised concern over planned strikes

Axios and The Associated Press news agency reported that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman raised concerns about his plans to escalate strikes on Iran during a phone call on Saturday, according to Al Jazeera.

Axios, citing a US official, said Prince Mohammed “expressed concern and asked for clarity about the plan of action”. It cited another source with knowledge of the matter as saying that he had urged Trump to de-escalate and refrain from launching the strikes.

A person briefed on the substance of the call told the AP that the Saudis were concerned that if the US targets Iran’s energy infrastructure or carries out massive strikes on bridges or power plants, Tehran could respond by carrying out attacks on the kingdom’s and other Gulf countries’ energy infrastructure.

As we’ve been reporting, Trump said he had been persuaded not to attack Iran by countries in the Middle East.

Trump says he will hold off on fresh Iran attack in hope of quick deal

US President Donald Trump said late on Saturday he would hold off on a fresh attack on Iran as long as a deal could be reached quickly to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran and “other Middle Eastern Countries” asked for a time to complete a deal that would lead to “the Immediate, Complete and Total” reopening of the Strait and “an end to Iran’s nuclear threat,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“Based on this request, I have agreed, for the future benefit of the WORLD and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran, to cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL.”

Israel “joins me in this commitment,” Trump wrote. Israel did not immediately make a public statement on the issue.

Iran warned the US this weekend against any “adventurous action” and said it would retaliate decisively if American forces followed through on Trump’s threats of fresh attacks on Iranian targets.

Read: Top Iranian commander warns countries serving as defensive shield for US will ‘burn in flames of war’

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi’s comments in separate phone calls on Saturday with senior Turkish, Pakistani and Saudi officials came just hours after Kuwait’s army said it destroyed hostile drones launched by Iran against several vital facilities.

Speaking to Chief of Army Staff and Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Araghchi said Iran would respond decisively to any “aggression” and discussed the consequences of “destabilising actions” by the US, as well as prospects for heightened regional insecurity, according to Araqchi’s Telegram account.

Araghchi later told Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan that any attacks by the US and Israel or participation by regional countries in such actions would be met with a “proportionate response.” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman spoke to Trump on Saturday and “expressed concern and asked for clarity” about US plans for Iran, a US official told Axios.

The Saudi crown prince spoke to Trump, a White House official told Reuters, but did not provide details.

Nournews, a media outlet affiliated with Iran’s top security body, said on Saturday that US attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure would prompt Iranian strikes on oil fields in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the gas fields of Qatar and Israel, saying, “all will be burned to ashes.”

At a cabinet meeting on Friday at the Camp David retreat, Trump said he believed US negotiators, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, could still reach a deal with Iran.

But Trump also said he was losing faith in the Iranians, saying, “They break their word so often” — a claim Tehran has frequently levelled at Washington — and said he would be “hitting them.”

Iranian lawmaker accuses US of threatening attacks in public while pushing for talks behind the scenes

Writing before Trump cancelled the planned attacks, Hassan Ghashghavi, a senior Iranian lawmaker and spokesman for the Parliament’s Commission on National Security and Foreign Policy, said regardless of how the war progresses, traffic in the Strait of Hormuz will be managed by Tehran, according to Al Jazeera.

“In the media, they speak of escalation, while through existing channels they demand negotiations,” Ghashghavi said. “They cannot deceive the Islamic Republic of Iran. Whether by escalating or by negotiating, Iranian arrangement for passage through the SoH [Strait of Hormuz] is the only option on the table.”

Meanwhile, Majidreza Hariri, president of the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Washington does not have the “courage” to target the country’s energy infrastructure.

“They don’t have the courage to carry it out because Iran’s resilience is far greater than that of the countries in the region against the destruction of infrastructure,” Hariri said in a post on X.

Iran’s electricity grid is reportedly one of the most decentralised in the world and contains up to 150 power plants across the country. The network’s extensive size makes it far more difficult to cause a nationwide blackout through an aerial assault.

Strait of Hormuz

Oil prices have stayed high since US and Israeli forces started the war with strikes on Iran on February 28. Trump has argued that his stated goal of keeping Iran from allegedly gaining nuclear weapons justifies higher fuel costs in the near term, but the economic pain has put political pressure on him to find a way to end the war.

Benchmark Brent crude futures rose 24% in July, and analysts polled by Reuters expect prices to rise further this year.

Read more: Trump convenes Cabinet at Camp David amid simmering Iran war

The risk of Iranian attacks has deterred most shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, an important conduit for global energy supplies, since the start of the conflict, sending shockwaves through the world economy.

A government facility in northern Kuwait and civilian property belonging to a company on Bubiyan Island were hit on Saturday, with falling shrapnel causing material damage but no casualties, the Kuwaiti army said.

Adding to the energy industry’s concerns, Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen recently began threatening the Bab el-Mandeb, the strait at the other end of the Red Sea from the Suez Canal, another export route for Saudi crude.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said on Saturday it had received reports of two maritime incidents off Oman, including one in which a tanker was struck by an unknown projectile that damaged the engine room. In the other incident, the master of a tanker reported seeing a large splash and an explosion close to the vessel, though no damage was reported.