{"id":157455,"date":"2026-06-12T18:17:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T18:17:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/157455\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T18:17:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T18:17:16","slug":"trump-calls-off-latest-threats-to-strike-iran-citing-a-breakthrough-in-talks-to-end-the-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/157455\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump calls off latest threats to strike Iran, citing a breakthrough in talks to end the war"},"content":{"rendered":"

(AP) \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he had called off\u00a0new military strikes on Iran<\/a>, claiming a breakthrough in negotiations to end the war just hours after the American leader threatened to escalate the conflict by\u00a0seizing control of Iran\u2019s oil industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Iran<\/a><\/p>\n

Cargo ships, including bulk carriers and general cargo vessels, sit at anchor offshore as a small motorboat passes in the foreground, in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, May 4 , 2026.(Amirhosein Khorgooi\/ISNA via AP)<\/p>\n

Trump has said multiple times in recent weeks that the warring parties have been on the cusp of a deal without anything coming to fruition. A spokesperson for Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry said in a live phone call on state television that mediators were active and nothing had been finalized to end the conflict that began Feb. 28 when the U.S. and Israel\u00a0jointly attacked Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trump opened an Oval Office event Thursday afternoon saying: \u201cWe just made a great settlement of the war with Iran.\u201d He offered scant details, other than to say he expects an agreement to extend a fragile ceasefire that started in April to be finalized \u201cover the next few days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Extending the terms of the ceasefire gives U.S. leaders more time to negotiate over Iran\u2019s nuclear program, the main reason\u00a0Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a>\u00a0used to justify launching the war. Netanyahu\u2019s office said Thursday that Israel is not a party to the emerging agreement between the U.S. and Iran.<\/p>\n

The announcement came after two days of back-and-forth attacks between the U.S. and Iran had pushed the Middle East closer to the resumption of a full-scale war.<\/p>\n

Trump had threatened further escalation earlier Thursday, posting on social media that the U.S. would hit Iran \u201cVERY HARD TONIGHT\u201d and take \u201ctotal control\u201d of its\u00a0oil and gas industries<\/a>. A few hours later, Trump posted on social media that significant points in the negotiations \u201chave been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esmail Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry, said in his phone call on state television that the text of a deal is \u201cmostly finalized.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is that the contradictions in America\u2019s position have caused turbulence to this process,\u201d he said Thursday night.<\/p>\n

A major sticking point in negotiations has been Iran\u2019s nuclear program, which the U.S. and Israel fear could lead to an atomic weapon, but which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes. Another key issue is Iran\u2019s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping lane for transporting oil and natural gas.<\/p>\n

Trump again moves quickly from threats to negotiating<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s rapid shift Thursday from dire threats to promoting peace negotiations again underscored his whipsaw approach to the war. He suggested on Monday that a deal to end the conflict could be reached in a matter of days.<\/p>\n

Then back-and-forth strikes rattled the Middle East this week. The first involved\u00a0attacks between Iran and Israel<\/a>, followed by the two rounds of fire between the U.S. and Iran, which targeted countries where U.S. troops are based. The U.S. strikes began after Trump blamed Iran for\u00a0downing an American attack helicopter<\/a>\u00a0near the Strait of Hormuz. Both pilots were rescued safely.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s Foreign Ministry said the U.S. attacks had \u201ceffectively rendered the ceasefire \u2026 meaningless,\u201d without saying it was abandoning it.<\/p>\n

After Trump threatened more attacks were to come on Thursday, Iran\u2019s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, responded on social media that \u201cwrong strategies and impulsive decisions\u201d would wreak havoc on energy markets and \u201ccreate an endless quagmire that you will be stuck in for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t the first time Trump threatened escalation before giving negotiations another chance. In April, he warned Iran that \u201ca whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again\u201d if it didn\u2019t agree to his terms, before extending a ceasefire.<\/p>\n

Trump threatened to seize Iran\u2019s main oil terminal<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s monthslong disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has crimped global energy supplies, driven up fuel prices and made\u00a0food and other basics<\/a>\u00a0more expensive well beyond the region.<\/p>\n

Trump had threatened Thursday to seize Kharg Island, the heart of\u00a0Iran\u2019s oil industry<\/a>, through which 90% of its exports pass.<\/p>\n

But Trump himself soon voiced doubts about taking over the oil terminal, saying in an interview with Fox News: \u201cI don\u2019t know that America has the stomach for it, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to have boots on the ground,\u201d Trump said. \u201cBut if I wanted to, we could put a small group of soldiers and take over the place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tensions persist over Iran\u2019s nuclear program, Strait of Hormuz<\/p>\n

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a social media post that the U.S. would extract funds from frozen Iranian accounts to offset the costs of damage to American allies and any tolls Iran imposes for ships to transit the\u00a0Strait of Hormuz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Beyond the deadlock over the strait, the two sides also remain at odds over Iran\u2019s nuclear program. Tehran insists its nuclear efforts are peaceful. The U.S. and Israel fear Tehran\u2019s stockpile of highly enriched uranium could be used to build an atomic weapon.<\/p>\n

Iran has insisted that any deal to end the war must also end fighting in Lebanon between its ally militia Hezbollah and Israel. But Netanyahu appears\u00a0intent on pursuing his goal<\/a>\u00a0of destroying the militant group.<\/p>\n

Iranian student says hope dwindles as attacks escalate<\/p>\n

A 25-year-old student in northern Iran says Iranians are fearing \u201cchaos\u201d amid the war with the U.S. and Israel and multiplying crises at home.<\/p>\n

The student, who lives in the city of Babol, said many Iranians are struggling to afford groceries in the face of mass job losses and triple-digit food inflation. He spoke on the condition of anonymity out of security fears.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is going wrong and there is no hope among the people,\u201d the student added.<\/p>\n

The student first spoke to The Associated Press before the war when he participated in widespread anti-government protests. He now says his chief concern is that Iran \u201cmaintain territorial integrity and deterrence\u201d in the face of attacks by the U.S. and Israel.<\/p>\n

US fires on another merchant ship to enforce blockade<\/p>\n

The U.S. military\u2019s Central Command said Thursday that it struck a Guinea-Bissau-flagged tanker attempting to evade the American blockade on Iranian ports. It said the M\/T Jalveer was transporting Iranian oil when it was disabled late Wednesday after its crew failed to obey U.S. orders.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the ninth merchant vessel the U.S. military says it disabled to enforce the blockade.<\/p>\n

Three Indian sailors were killed when American forces struck the Palau-flagged M\/T Settebello on Tuesday, India\u2019s minister overseeing ports and shipping said Thursday on X.<\/p>\n

U.S. Central Command said American forces issued warnings before firing on the ship, which it accused of trying to evade the blockade.<\/p>\n

The leader of the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations agency, condemned the attack.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(AP) \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he had called off\u00a0new military strikes on Iran, claiming a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157456,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[102,34,13005,1937,6475,196,864,101,309],"class_list":["post-157455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-strait-of-hormuz","tag-hormuz","tag-iran","tag-iran-missile-attack","tag-iran-missile-strikes","tag-iran-sanctions","tag-iran-war","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-strait-of-hormuz","tag-trump-administration"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116738513018920167","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157455","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=157455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157455\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}