WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0President Trump said he is holding off on a military strike on Iran planned for Tuesday because \u201cserious negotiations\u201d are underway.<\/p>\n
Trump made the announcement in a social media post on Monday after threatening over the weekend that time was running out for Iran to strike a deal or fighting would renew. Last week, he said a fragile ceasefire was on \u201clife support,\u201d and U.S. forces exchanged fire with Iranian forces. <\/p>\n
The president, who had not previously disclosed that he was planning a strike for Tuesday, did not offer details about the planned attack in his Monday post but said he instructed the U.S. military \u201cto 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 has been threatening for weeks that the ceasefire struck in mid-April could end if Iran did not strike a deal, with shifting parameters for striking such an agreement. Over the weekend he warned, \u201cFor Iran, the Clock is Ticking, and they better get moving, FAST, or there won\u2019t be anything left of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump said he was calling off the planned strike at the request of allies in the Middle East, including the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n
The president has repeatedly set deadlines for Tehran and then backed off. But he\u2019s also in the past indicated he would hold off on military action to allow talks to continue \u2014 only to turn around and launch strikes. That\u2019s what happened at the war\u2019s outset, when he ordered strikes shortly after indicating he would let talks play out.<\/p>\n
Trump in recent days has also spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Chinese President Xi Jinping about the Iran war.<\/p>\n
Earlier Monday, Turkey\u2019s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said the immediate concern of the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran was keeping the Strait of Hormuz open, but Iran\u2019s nuclear program remained a central issue.<\/p>\n
Speaking during a joint news conference with his German counterpart in Berlin, Fidan said much of Iran\u2019s enriched uranium that could potentially be used for a nuclear weapon was buried under collapsed tunnels following attacks in June that the U.S. launched with Israel. The U.S. has said it is closely monitoring any movements around the stockpile. <\/p>\n
\u201cAt present, there isn\u2019t a situation that poses a real threat,\u201d Fidan said. \u201cBut for this to continue, the parties must reach and conclude a nuclear negotiation among themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Turkish minister said he believes Iran is not opposed in principle to complying with nuclear conditions, but added: \u201cthe question is what will be given in return, in what order, and under what conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n
With talks at a standstill last week, Iran\u2019s foreign minister said Friday that a lack of trust was the biggest impediment to negotiations. <\/p>\n
Iran, which says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, was said to have included some nuclear concessions in its latest proposal to end the war. But Trump dismissed the proposal as \u201cgarbage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Price writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0President Trump said he is holding off on a military strike on Iran planned for Tuesday because \u201cserious…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120453,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[14085,41201,34803,34,2709,8810,11543,681,10221,722,8093,14029,392,1518,5745,36],"class_list":["post-120452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iran","tag-deal","tag-foreign-minister-hakan-fidan","tag-gulf-ally","tag-iran","tag-iran-strike","tag-last-week","tag-military-strike","tag-monday","tag-negotiation","tag-president-trump","tag-request","tag-talk","tag-trump","tag-tuesday","tag-u-s-force","tag-war"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116598752043599200","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}