{"id":491271,"date":"2026-05-18T21:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T21:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/491271\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T21:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T21:30:07","slug":"trump-says-he-has-delayed-planned-attack-on-iran-to-allow-for-further-negotiations-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/491271\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says he has delayed planned attack on Iran to allow for further negotiations \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

US<\/a> president Donald Trump<\/a> said on Monday he had paused a planned attack against Iran<\/a> to allow for negotiations to take place on a deal to end the \u200bUS-Israeli<\/a> war, after Iran sent a new peace proposal to Washington. <\/p>\n

Trump said he had instructed the US military that \u201cwe will NOT be doing the scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow, but have further instructed them to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment\u2019s notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump, under pressure \u200bto reach an accord that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> and limit the economic fallout of the war that he started in February, has previously expressed hope that a deal was close \u2060on ending the war, only for no agreement to materialise.<\/p>\n

In his post, he said the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United \u200cArab \u200cEmirates \u200b(UAE) had requested that he hold off on the previously undisclosed attack because \u201ca Deal will be made, which will be very acceptable to the United States of America, as well as all Countries in the Middle East, and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s post \u2060came after Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei confirmed that Tehran\u2019s \u200bviews had been \u201cconveyed to the American side through Pakistan<\/a>\u201d but gave no details. <\/p>\n

A Pakistani \u200bsource confirmed that Islamabad, which has conveyed messages between the sides in the war in the Middle East since hosting the only round of peace talks last \u200cmonth, had shared the latest proposal with Washington. But the \u200bsource suggested progress had been difficult.<\/p>\n

The sides \u201ckeep changing their goalposts\u201d, the Pakistani source said, adding: \u201cWe don\u2019t have much time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Iranian proposal, as described by the senior Iranian source, appeared \u200bsimilar in many respects to Iran\u2019s previous offer, which Trump rejected last week as \u201cgarbage\u201d.<\/p>\n

It would focus first on securing an end \u200bto the war, reopening the Strait of Hormuz \u2013 a major oil<\/a> supply route that Iran has effectively blockaded \u2013 and lifting maritime sanctions. More contentious issues around Iran\u2019s nuclear programme and uranium enrichment would be deferred to later rounds of talks, the source said.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Russia and China may exploit Iran fallout to increase global leverage, EU ministers warnedOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

However, in an apparent softening of Washington\u2019s stance, the senior Iranian \u200bsource said the US had agreed to release a quarter of Iran\u2019s frozen funds \u2013 totalling tens of billions of dollars \u2013 held in \u200bforeign banks. Iran wants all the assets released.<\/p>\n

The Iranian source also said Washington had showed more flexibility in allowing Iran to continue some peaceful nuclear activity \u200cunder supervision \u2060of the International Atomic Energy Agency<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Tasnim news agency separately quoted an unidentified source as saying the US had accepted waiving oil sanctions on Iran while negotiations were under way. Iranian officials did not immediately comment on Tasnim\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

A fragile ceasefire is in place after six weeks of war that followed US-Israeli air strikes on Iran. But talks mediated by Pakistan have stalled and Trump has said the ceasefire is \u201con life support\u201d.<\/p>\n

Washington has urged Tehran to dismantle its \u2060nuclear programme and lift an effective blockade on the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil and liquefied natural gas<\/a> \u200csupply.<\/p>\n

Iran \u200chas \u200bdemanded compensation for war damage, an end to a US blockade of Iranian ports and a halt to fighting on all fronts, including in Lebanon, where Israel is battling the Iran-backed Hizbullah militia.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Israeli attacks on Lebanon kill more than 3,000 since MarchOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Trump said in a post \u2060on Truth Social at the weekend that \u201cthe Clock is \u200bTicking\u201d for Iran, adding that \u201cthey better get moving, FAST, or there won\u2019t be \u200banything left of them. TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump is expected to meet top national security advisers on Tuesday to discuss options for resuming military action, \u200cAxios reported.<\/p>\n

Issues holding up negotiations also include Iran\u2019s nuclear ambitions. \u200bThe US and other big powers want to ensure that Iran cannot develop nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n

Tehran denies trying to do so, and also wants \u2060compensation for war damage, a guarantee that there will be no \u2060further attacks, and resumption of Iranian \u200boil sales.<\/p>\n

Baghaei said Tehran was prepared for all scenarios.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs for their threats, rest assured that we are fully aware of how to respond appropriately to even the smallest mistake from the opposing side,\u201d he told a televised weekly press conference.<\/p>\n

Hostilities have been reduced since the ceasefire came into effect in April, but drones have been launched from Iran towards Gulf countries hosting US military bases.<\/p>\n

One drone strike caused a fire at a nuclear power plant in the UAE, officials there said on Sunday and Saudi Arabia reported intercepting three drones.<\/p>\n

Iran stepped up attacks on the UAE this month after Trump announced a naval mission to try to \u200copen the Strait of Hormuz, which he \u2060suspended after 48 hours. \u2013 Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US president Donald Trump said on Monday he had paused a planned attack against Iran to allow for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,356,13,14,6,21029,59104,18929,71,45036,11,12,14407,47615,15,16,5,9951,2214,2120,15112,168834,7,8,389,384,107,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-491271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-donald-trump","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-hizbullah","tag-international-atomic-energy-agency","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-israel-iran-conflict","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-lebanon","tag-lng","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-oil","tag-pakistan","tag-qatar","tag-saudi-arabia","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-united-arab-emirates","tag-united-states","tag-us","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116597714325028200","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}