US president Donald Trump has called off fresh strikes planned for Tuesday at the request of Gulf allies, as a peace deal gets “very close”.
“I’ve put it off for a little while, hopefully maybe forever, but possibly for a little while, because we’ve had very big discussions with Iran, and we’ll see what they amount to. I was asked by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and some others,” he said in a post on Truth Social.
“If we could put it off for two or three days, a short period of time, because they think that they are getting very close to making a deal,” Trump added.
The president did not offer details about the planned attack but said but he instructed the US military “to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached.”
It comes after Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Tehran is continuing to “pursue diplomacy with seriousness,” but that the Islamic Republic “will not be subdued by contradictory behavior and threats from the opposing side.”
Oil prices fall as Trump holds off Iran attack
Oil prices fell more than 2 per cent in early Asian trade after US president Donald Trump said he had paused a planned attack on Iran to allow for negotiations to end the war in the Middle East.
Brent futures for July delivery fell $3.01, or 2.7 per cent, to $109.09 a barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery fell $1.38, or 1.3 per cent, to $107.28.The two benchmarks had hit their highest levels since 5 May and 30 April, respectively, in the previous session.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar19 May 2026 04:06
Trump says he has put off an attack for a ‘little while’ as Gulf allies say peace deal is close
Donald Trump has said he has “put off” an attack on Iran for “a little while” in a post on Truth Social, as Gulf allies say peace deal is close.
It comes after he said he is holding off on a military strike on Iran planned for Tuesday because “serious negotiations” are underway.
He said in a post on Truth Social: “Well, other countries have come to me, and they’ve said we were getting ready to do a very major attack tomorrow. I’ve put it off for a little while, hopefully maybe forever, but possibly for a little while, because we’ve had very big discussions with Iran, and we’ll see what they amount to. I was asked by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and some others.
“If we could put it off for two or three days, a short period of time, because they think that they are getting very close to making a deal, and if we can do that, where there’s no nuclear weapon going into the hands of Iran, I think, and if they’re satisfied, we will be probably satisfied also.”
“We’ve had periods of time where we had, we thought, pretty much getting close to making a deal, and didn’t work out. But this is a little bit different now. We’re already going tomorrow, very big, and not something I wanted to do, but we have no choice, because we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.”
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar19 May 2026 04:05
Iran war briefing:
- US president Donald Trump said he is holding off on a military strike on Iran planned for Tuesday because “serious negotiations” are underway
- Trump said there was a very good chance the US could reach an agreement with Iran to prevent Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, hours after saying he had postponed a planned military attack to allow negotiations to continue
- Khatam al-Anbiya, the top joint military command in Iran, warned that its armed forces are “ready to pull the trigger” in the event of any renewed US attack
- Brent crude oil prices fell more than 2 per cent to $109.41 a barrel on the back of Trump’s comments, while US crude was down 1.3 per cent to $107.25 per barrel
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar19 May 2026 04:05
