US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has said that new negotiations with Iran will begin today after he decided to hold off on new \u201cdisastrous\u201d strikes in favour of pursuing a deal.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Trump pulled back from threats for a massive attack against Iran, saying the \u201cperimeter\u201d of a deal was taking shape.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oil prices have fallen nearly 5% in the hours after Trump announced the fresh talks.<\/p>\n
On board Air Force One yesterday, Trump told reporters that Iran \u201cdon\u2019t want to be attacked\u201d and \u201cknew the extent of the attack because they saw it forming\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow what we\u2019re doing is we\u2019re talking to them in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He did not provide further details about the venue of the talks or the participants.<\/p>\n
In his comments yesterday, where he explained his decision-making, Trump said that he had been asked by Iran as well as US partners Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to hold off on the strikes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the allies asked to call it off, you\u2019ve got to sort say \u2018Well, let\u2019s see.\u2019 And the reason they ask is they think there\u2019s a deal,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a deal on (the Strait of) Hormuz, and then there will be a deal on the nuclear, or you might call it the denuclearization of Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n
He reiterated that the scale of the planned strikes would have been \u201cthe biggest attack since World War Two.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would take many, many years to ever build it back if it could \u2014 I don\u2019t think it would even be buildable,\u201d Trump asserted.<\/p>\n
He said Saudi Arabia\u2019s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman had also urged against the strikes, warning of possible unintended consequences.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, will they be flooded with people pouring into their country and disaster? A lot of bad things can happen,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
The war began on 28 February when the US and Israel launched surprise strikes against Iran.<\/p>\n
A previous ceasefire deal, including the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 a vital conduit for global energy supplies \u2014 fell through, and Iran has since tightened its control over the vital waterway as the two countries resumed attacks against each other in recent weeks.<\/p>\n