Trump Calls Off Iran Strikes, Says Talks Are Tehran's 'Last Chance'

Today’s Focus

President Donald Trump said Monday that he called off large-scale U.S. strikes on Iran over the weekend and gave Tehran what he described as a final window to negotiate a deal covering the Strait of Hormuz and its nuclear program.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said talks would begin “in the next day or two,” with a first phase focused on reopening the strait and a second phase addressing what he called denuclearization, according to PBS NewsHour and The Guardian.

“This is the last chance for them to sign a good document,” Trump said, per The Guardian’s account of his remarks.

Trump said he scrapped a plan he called “the biggest attack since World War II” after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman urged diplomacy in a phone call. He also cited requests from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, PBS reported.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei pushed back on the White House framing. “We are not currently negotiating with the United States,” Baghaei said Monday, according to The Guardian, adding that Tehran was in discussions with Oman about a temporary shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz but not with Washington directly.

The Guardian reported this was the 12th time during the U.S.-Iran conflict that Trump had publicly threatened strikes and then held off. PBS noted that Iran is “betting it can outlast” the administration as U.S. munitions stockpiles thin and public support for the war softens ahead of the November midterms.

Trump also called Iran’s leadership “unbelievably duplicitous,” per The Guardian, while insisting his cancellation was conditional on a fast agreement.

The Debate

Supporters argue

Backers of the president’s approach say the pattern of threat-and-pause has produced results without committing U.S. forces to a prolonged ground war. Trump argued Monday that U.S. strikes had already “decimated layers of Tehran’s leadership” and degraded Iran’s air force and navy, according to PBS NewsHour, giving Washington leverage at the table.

Gulf allies publicly welcomed the pause. Trump said Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman personally lobbied him to hold fire, per The Guardian, suggesting regional partners view the current posture as productive rather than reckless.

Administration allies contend that phasing negotiations, first the strait, then the nuclear file, is a realistic sequence that addresses the most immediate economic threat to global shipping before tackling the harder proliferation questions Trump outlined in the Oval Office.

Supporters also point to the credibility of the threat itself. Trump told reporters the canceled operation would have been unmatched “since World War II,” language his defenders say has forced Tehran to consider concessions it previously refused.

Critics argue

Critics say the on-again, off-again strike posture is eroding U.S. credibility and confusing allies. The Guardian noted this was roughly the 12th publicly telegraphed strike Trump has called off during the war, a rhythm opponents describe as strategically incoherent.

Iranian officials directly contradicted the White House account. Foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said flatly there are no active talks with Washington, per The Guardian, undermining the premise Trump used to justify the pause.

Congressional Democrats and antiwar Republicans have argued that repeated escalation threats risk drawing the U.S. deeper into a conflict that PBS NewsHour reported is “unpopular with the American electorate” heading into the midterms.

Analysts sympathetic to a diplomatic offramp also question whether “denuclearization” is a realistic ask. Dania Thafer of the Gulf International Forum, interviewed on PBS NewsHour, cautioned that Tehran views its program as an existential deterrent and is unlikely to surrender it under public ultimatum.

What the experts say

The Strait of Hormuz carries roughly 20% of global petroleum liquids consumption, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, meaning any prolonged closure has outsized effects on world oil markets regardless of the military balance.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported earlier this year that Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% had grown well beyond the levels envisioned in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, complicating any near-term “denuclearization” framework of the kind Trump described.

The Congressional Research Service has documented that since 2019, Iran has repeatedly used maritime harassment in the Gulf as leverage during diplomatic standoffs, a pattern independent analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies say makes a shipping-first agreement plausible but fragile.

On the domestic politics, Pew Research Center polling this summer found a majority of Americans opposed expanding direct U.S. military action against Iran, giving weight to PBS NewsHour’s reporting on midterm sensitivities.

By the Numbers

12: approximate number of times Trump has publicly threatened and then canceled strikes on Iran during the current conflict, according to The Guardian.

20%: share of global petroleum liquids consumption that passes through the Strait of Hormuz, per the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

2: phases Trump outlined for a potential deal, opening the strait first and addressing the nuclear program second, per PBS NewsHour.

3: Gulf countries Trump named as urging restraint: Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, according to PBS NewsHour.

60%: enrichment level of uranium in Iran’s expanded stockpile documented by the IAEA, well above JCPOA-era limits.

$656 million: unrelated U.S. judgment against the PLO and Palestinian Authority that the Supreme Court declined to halt Monday, per PBS NewsHour, underscoring the wider Middle East legal landscape.