Donald Trump had been ready to launch an attack on Iran today, Tuesday, as he himself revealed in a post Monday night following communication with the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who convinced him to postpone his plans “given that serious negotiations are currently underway and that, in their opinion, as Great Leaders and Allies, an agreement will be reached that will be fully acceptable to the United States of America, as well as to all countries in the Middle East and beyond.”

According to Axios, Trump spoke by phone with the leaders of the three Gulf countries 24 hours before his Monday night post.

A U.S. official cited by the American website claimed that there was “a unified message from Doha, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh. It was along the lines of ‘give negotiations a chance because if you strike Iran, we will all pay the price for it.’”

A second source conveyed that Trump had told some of his political allies that the three Arab leaders told him they “don’t want their oil and energy facilities blown up” due to retaliation from Iran.

“I will wait 2-3 days”

After his post, Trump told reporters that the Arab leaders had asked him to wait “for two or three days,” adding that he had informed Israel in advance about his decision.

Closing

As the U.S. president said, this time is “a little different” from previous occasions when he believed Iran was close to an agreement.

“It’s a very positive development, but we’ll see if it leads to anything,” he said, adding that there had been “periods of time” during which U.S. officials believed an agreement was near, “but this one is a little different.”

Trump calls off Iran strike ‘hopefully, maybe forever’ and talks pending nuclear deal

“We were getting ready to carry out a very big attack tomorrow. I postponed it for a little while — hopefully, maybe forever — but probably for a little while, because we had very big discussions with Iran and we’ll see what comes out of them,” Trump said. “Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and some others asked me if we could postpone it for two or three days, a short period of time, because they believe they are very close to reaching an agreement,” he added regarding his decision to postpone the strike.

Although he repeated his red line that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons, Trump also suggested that if the Gulf states were satisfied with a peace proposal, then the U.S. would be too. He said that other unnamed countries had also asked him to delay further strikes.

“These three countries called me, as did others, and they are dealing directly with our people, and right now with Iran, and it looks like there is a very good chance they may be able to work something out. If we can do that without bombing them badly, I would be very happy,” Trump told CNN’s Kristen Holmes.

However, as CNN notes, Iran’s latest proposal for ending the war did not offer significant concessions on certain critical points, with disagreements over nuclear enrichment remaining central to the deadlock so far.

Tehran’s reaction

Mohsen Rezaei responded with a provocative message on social media to Donald Trump’s new threats against Iran. The member of Tehran’s Expediency Council and former commander of the Revolutionary Guards appeared to mock the American president over the fact that, as he said, he had set a “deadline for a military attack” and then canceled it himself.

With his post on X, Rezaei appeared to mock the American president over the fact that he set a “deadline for a military attack” and then canceled it himself.

“With this futile hope of forcing the Iranian people and officials to surrender!” Rezaei wrote.

He then added: “The iron fist of the powerful armed forces and the great Iranian nation will force them to retreat and surrender.”