WASHINGTON (TNND) — President Donald Trump said new talks to end the war in Iran will resume on Monday after he decided to “hold off” on massive strikes over the weekend.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One Sunday evening, Trump explained that Iran said it would like to make a deal, remaining cautiously optimistic about Iran’s willingness to negotiate.
They said we’d like to make a deal. Now, you know, I don’t know what they say because a lot of times they’ll say that to me and then they’ll go out and say, we don’t know what he’s talking about. Obviously they don’t want to be attacked. And they knew, they knew the extent of the attack because they saw it forming,” Trump said.
Trump explained that the administration’s next steps begin Monday afternoon “in the form of a negotiation.”
And we’ll see if it’s real. I’d love to do that, save a lot of lives, save a lot of, uh, a lot of unnecessary power, to be honest with you.”
On Sunday night, Trump announced on Truth Social that he agreed to cancel a planned military strike after Tehran and several Middle Eastern nations requested more time to finalize a broader agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and address Iran’s nuclear program.
“I was asked to by Saudi Arabia, by UAE, and by Qatar, and by Iran. We were all set to go, just about at this time right now, and it would’ve been a massive attack,” Trump said on Air Force One.
He said the reason they requested to call off the strikes is the nations feel there is a deal on the Strait and denuclearization.
We’ll just see how it is. We’re ready to go any time we want. Would I rather make a deal? I’m not looking to kill people.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth said his department is ready to go “at levels not seen since World War II.
“Locked and loaded,” Hegseth wrote on X.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, told The Associated Press on Monday that Tehran was not currently holding negotiations with the United States. He said ongoing talks were with Oman, the country that lies on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, and were focused “only on establishing a temporary route for safe navigation through the strait.”