Gulf states pressed President Trump to hold off on Iran strikes

President Trump held off on a new attack on Iran as mediators made fresh progress on a plan to open the strategic Strait of Hormuz and some Gulf states pressed the President to pursue dialogue with Tehran, people familiar with the matter said.

Mr Trump said that Mideast allies have reached the parameters of a deal to end the 5-month old war. The emerging deal “would include the Immediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT, and an end to Iran’s nuclear threat,” Trump wrote in a Saturday evening social media post.

“Based on this request, I have agreed, for the future benefit of the WORLD and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran, to cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL,” Trump said.

While Iran’s leaders appear united in a war strategy signaling strength and endurance, a struggle for control seems to be brewing within the theocracy’s leadership between those who oppose all negotiations with the US and others who count on military pressure to win at the negotiating table.

A regional official says the proposal announced by Trump over the weekend calls for the US and Iran to return to negotiations and continue working out many of the issues that have stymied prior progress on the deal. 

The official, who is involved in the mediation efforts, said the proposal calls for reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and halting attacks across the region, including by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq on the Arab Gulf countries and Jordan. 

The US, in exchange, will end its naval blockade on Iran and allow Tehran to export its oil as stated in the tentative ceasefire deal, he said. President Trump said that Israel is joining his commitment to end the war by implementing the ceasefire deal.