World News
Trump says Iran peace deal is near after threatening new strikes
Key Points
Trump says Iran peace deal is near after threatening new strikes US President Donald Trump said Thursday he had halted plans for new military strikes on Iran, claiming negotiators were close to extending a fragile ceasefire, just hours after threatening to intensify the conflict by targeting Iran’s oil industry. US President Donald Trump said Thursday he had called off new military strikes on Iran, claiming a breakthrough in negotiations to end the war just hours after the American leader...
Trump says Iran peace deal is near after threatening new strikes
US President Donald Trump said Thursday he had halted plans for new military strikes on Iran, claiming negotiators were close to extending a fragile ceasefire, just hours after threatening to intensify the conflict by targeting Iran’s oil industry.
US President Donald Trump said Thursday he had called off new military strikes on Iran, claiming a breakthrough in negotiations to end the war just hours after the American leader threatened to escalate the conflict by seizing control of Iran's oil industry.
Trump has said multiple times in recent weeks that the warring parties have been on the cusp of a deal without anything coming to fruition. A spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a live phone call on state television that mediators were active and nothing had been finalised to end the conflict that began February 28 when the US and Israel jointly attacked Iran.
Trump opened an Oval Office event Thursday afternoon saying: “We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran.” He offered scant details, other than to say he expects an agreement to extend a fragile ceasefire that started in April to be finalised “over the next few days.”
Extending the terms of the ceasefire gives US leaders more time to negotiate over Iran’s nuclear programme, the main reason Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used to justify launching the war.
To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement.
One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site.
The announcement came after two days of back-and-forth attacks between the US and Iran had pushed the Middle East closer to the resumption of a full-scale war.
Trump had threatened further escalation earlier Thursday, posting on social media that the US would hit Iran “VERY HARD TONIGHT” and take “total control” of its oil and gas industries. A few hours later, Trump posted on social media that significant points in the negotiations “have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved.”
Esmail Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said in his phone call on state television that text of a deal is “mostly finalised.”
"The problem is that the contradictions in America’s position has caused turbulence to this process,” he said Thursday night.
A major sticking point in negotiations has been Iran's nuclear programme, which the US and Israel fear could lead to an atomic weapon, but which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes. Another key issue is Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping lane for transporting oil and natural gas.
Trump's rapid shift Thursday from dire threats to promoting peace negotiations again underscored his whipsaw approach to the war. He suggested on Monday that a deal to end the conflict could be reached in a matter of days.
To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement.
One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site.
Then back-and-forth strikes rattled the Middle East this week. The first involved attacks between Iran and Israel, followed by the two rounds of fire between the US and Iran, which targeted countries where US troops are based. The US strikes began after Trump blamed Iran for downing an American attack helicopter near the Strait of Hormuz. Both pilots were rescued safely.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the US attacks had “effectively rendered the ceasefire ... meaningless,” without saying it was abandoning it.
After Trump threatened more attacks were to come on Thursday, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, responded on social media that “wrong strategies and impulsive decisions” would wreak havoc on energy markets and “create an endless quagmire that you will be stuck in for years.”
It wasn't the first time Trump threatened escalation before giving negotiations another chance. In April, he warned Iran that “a whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if it didn’t agree to his terms, before extending a ceasefire.
Iran’s monthslong disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has crimped global energy supplies, driven up fuel prices and made food and other basics more expensive well beyond the region.
Trump had threatened Thursday to seize Kharg Island, the heart of Iran’s oil industry, through which 90% of its exports pass.
To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement.
One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site.
But Trump himself soon voiced doubts about taking over the oil terminal, saying in an interview with Fox News: “I don’t know that America has the stomach for it, to be honest.”
“I don’t want to have boots on the ground," Trump said. "But if I wanted to, we could put a small group of soldiers and take over the place.”
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a social media post that the US would extract funds from frozen Iranian accounts to offset the costs of damage to American allies and any tolls Iran imposes for ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
Beyond the deadlock over the strait, the two sides also remain at odds over Iran's nuclear programme. Tehran insists its nuclear efforts are peaceful. The US and Israel fear Tehran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium could be used to build an atomic weapon.
Iran has insisted that any deal to end the war must also end fighting in Lebanon between its ally militia Hezbollah and Israel. But Netanyahu appears intent on pursuing his goal of destroying the militant group.
A 25-year-old student in northern Iran says Iranians are fearing “chaos” amid the war with the US and Israel and multiplying crises at home.
The student, who lives in the city of Babol, said many Iranians are struggling to afford groceries in the face of mass job losses and triple-digit food inflation. He spoke on the condition of anonymity out of security fears.
“Everything is going wrong and there is no hope among the people,” the student added.
The student first spoke to The Associated Press before the war when he participated in widespread anti-government protests. He now says his chief concern is that Iran “maintain territorial integrity and deterrence” in the face of attacks by the US and Israel.
The US military's Central Command said Thursday that it struck a Guinea-Bissau-flagged tanker attempting to evade the American blockade on Iranian ports. It said the M/T Jalveer was transporting Iranian oil when it was disabled late Wednesday after its crew failed to obey US orders.
It's the ninth merchant vessel the US military says it disabled to enforce the blockade.
Three Indian sailors were killed when American forces struck the Palau-flagged M/T Settebello on Tuesday, India's minister overseeing ports and shipping said Thursday on X.
US Central Command said American forces issued warnings before firing on the ship, which it accused of trying to evade the blockade.
The leader of the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency, condemned the attack.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)