Trump pauses Iran attacks, says progress to peace deal

US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of further strikes against Iran on Thursday and said that a deal with Tehran to end the war could be signed in coming days.

Trump’s announcement fuelled a stock market rally and tanked oil prices, although Iran’s position remained unclear, with foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei saying, “Tehran had not reached a final conclusion on the agreement.”

Claiming that talks with Iran had been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, Trump said that he had cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening.

He promised to announce the time and place of the signing shortly.

He said the finer points of the arrangement had been approved by the United States and its allies in the region, including Israel, with which Washington jointly launched the war in February.

The Tasnim news agency noted that Trump had announced an imminent deal 38 times in the previous two months.

“Until Iran announces the matter of a potential understanding, any news from Trump on this subject should be regarded as the same as his previous messaging,” it warned.

Later Trump doubled down, telling reporters, “I understand the answer is yes,” when asked if Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei had approved the deal.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said, “the Israeli leader spoke to Trump, who vowed any memorandum of understanding would include the removal of Tehran’s enriched nuclear material as well as the dismantling of missile infrastructure.”

The World Bank earlier in the day revised down its global growth forecast to a level not seen since the coronavirus pandemic, warning of the expanding economic impacts of the war.

But stocks surged and oil futures dropped more than 3 per cent after Trump’s optimistic announcement.

The war, which began 28 February with a wave of US-Israeli strikes on Iran that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, paused under an April truce. But efforts to hammer out a permanent end to the fighting appeared stalled.

Tehran’s mayor said on Thursday that the former supreme leader’s funeral would be delayed until the end of June or the start of July.

Trump’s statement suggested that back-channel mediation led by US allies like Pakistan and Qatar may have been successful, despite his earlier claim that he would hit Iran ‘VERY HARD TONIGHT’.

“Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and extensive detail, approved by all parties involved, including the United States, Israel and Gulf states,” he posted.

Just a day earlier, he had declared that not only would US forces step up airstrikes, they would also seize control of Iran’s oil export facility on Kharg Island in the Gulf.

Even as Trump’s intervention raised hopes of a resolution, Kuwait reported Iran targeted its territory and damaged an airport radar, forcing an airspace closure.

With US threats escalating, Iranian General Ali Abdollahi warned earlier in the day that if the United States attacked, it would receive a harsher response than before, and the flames of war, in addition to creating insecurity in the region, would become more widespread and far-reaching.

Civilians facing renewed strikes in Tehran were pessimistic. Majid, a 35-year-old pharmacist, said, “the economic knock-on effects of the fighting were crippling normal life.”

“I am absolutely not optimistic about the agreement being finalised, because the gap between the two countries is too wide,” he said, blaming the lack of progress on Israel, which has also traded fire with Iran in recent days, as well as on hardliners at home.

Iran has renewed its warnings over the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for oil and gas transport that it has essentially closed since early in the war, roiling global energy markets.

Iran’s new body, overseeing the strait, said, “it will be closed until further notice.”