Trump says good chance of Iran deal after Gulf states secure attack pause
Trump says there is a good chance an Iran nuclear deal can be reached after pausing a planned military strike at the request of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, who believe an agreement is close.
Summary: President Donald Trump, public remarks.
- Trump said there appears to be a good chance a nuclear deal with Iran can be worked out
- A planned military strike was called off after Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and other regional parties requested a two-to-three day delay, believing a deal is near
- Trump said Iran must put its nuclear commitments in writing before any agreement can be finalised
- Israel and other regional partners have been informed and Trump described the situation as a very positive development
- The strike had been set for the following day and was large in scale; Trump stressed the US cannot allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon
- Trump acknowledged past negotiations had fallen short but said the current situation feels different
President Donald Trump said there appears to be a good chance a nuclear deal with Iran can be reached, delivering his most optimistic public assessment yet of the diplomatic effort after calling off a planned military strike to allow time for talks.
Trump confirmed that Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and other regional parties had asked for a pause of two to three days, making the case that the conditions for an agreement were closer than at any previous point in the standoff. He described the development as very positive and said Israel and other partners involved in the US-led effort had been briefed on the decision to stand down.
The timeline Trump laid out underscored how close the situation came to military confrontation. The strike had been scheduled for the following day, he said, and was substantial in scale. He framed the pause not as a withdrawal from the US position but as a narrow window opened by Gulf allies whose counsel he was prepared to act on, at least for now. The underlying stance, he made clear, remains unchanged: Iran will not be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon, and force stays on the table if diplomacy fails.
The condition Trump attached to any deal was concrete. Iran must commit to nuclear terms in writing. Verbal understandings or framework-level assurances will not be sufficient, and that requirement sets a clear and verifiable bar Tehran will need to meet before the military option is formally set aside.
Trump was candid about the fragility of the moment, noting that previous rounds of negotiation had generated optimism only to collapse without an agreement. He suggested the current situation feels meaningfully different, though he did not specify what has shifted in Iran’s posture or outline the substance of any proposal on the table.
For oil markets, the combination of a paused strike and a presidential statement that a deal has a genuine chance of success removes some near-term pressure from crude. But traders will not fully price out the risk while the outcome depends on Iranian written commitments being delivered within a matter of days, a bar that remains uncleared.
I’m not sure where this leaves Hormuz reopening.
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Trump’s explicit statement that there is a good chance of a deal marks a meaningful step up in de-escalation language and will pull near-term crude risk premium lower. If he has spoken in good faith, that is. Markets will nonetheless remain cautious: the window is days wide, Iran must still produce written nuclear commitments, and Trump has flagged that previous near-miss negotiations ultimately came to nothing. Any softening in Iranian rhetoric or confirmation of written terms being tabled would accelerate the selloff in crude; a breakdown in talks within the pause window would snap prices sharply higher. Hormuz supply risk has not been retired, only deferred.
This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at investinglive.com.