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Claiming there was progress in the peace negotiations, President Trump said he had canceled his next wave of planned attacks after two days of U.S. airstrikes.
Here’s the latest.
After two days of pounding Iran with airstrikes, President Trump on Thursday promised to hit Iran hard again for a third day and mused about invading a strategic island — then abruptly called off the attacks.
Mr. Trump said in a social media post that he changed his mind because progress had been made in peace negotiations with Iran. While he claimed that the discussions had “been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved,” Iran’s leadership did not immediately confirm any progress. Earlier this week, Mr. Trump had claimed a peace deal was imminent, but hours later, the two countries attacked each other.
Shortly before he called off strikes on Iran on Thursday, President Trump spoke to the Pakistanis, who have been mediating with the Iranians. The Pakistanis told Trump that “we have a deal” with Iran, according to a senior administration official. We have yet to independently confirm this with the Iranians, and it’s unclear what, if anything, has been agreed. International oil prices fell more than 3 percent, below $90 a barrel, after President Trump said he had canceled planned strikes against Iran.
In a social media post, President Trump said that he had “cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran” that he had threatened for later this evening. The president said he had canceled the attacks because of progress on a peace deal. He said that discussions “have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership” and approved. The president said the naval blockade would remain and suggested, without further explanation, there would be a “signing” announced soon.
Trump has repeatedly claimed over the last several months that a peace deal was imminent, often threatening escalating strikes against Iran soon after. Iranian officials, in turn, have often denied Trump’s claims that they have agreed to terms of a potential peace deal.
The commander of Iran’s military headquarters warned on Thursday that any new U.S. attack would draw a “response harsher than before” that would make the war “broader and more widespread,” the country’s state broadcaster reported.
The commander also appeared to issue a veiled threat against other countries’ energy exports, saying that in light of recent U.S. threats against Iran’s oil infrastructure, “either everyone” will be able to export oil and gas, “or no one will.”
The State Department said on Thursday that it was speaking with the Indian government after officials in Delhi summoned the top U.S. diplomat in India at the moment to denounce what appears to be U.S. involvement in a strike on a commercial oil tanker near Oman that left three Indian sailors dead. “The Department of State is in direct contact with the government of India regarding this matter,” the agency said. India summoned the diplomat, Jason P. Meeks, the deputy chief of mission at at the U.S. Embassy in Delhi, on Wednesday. The U.S. ambassador, Sergio Gor, is out of the country. “We condemn the attack on the commercial vessel Settebello off the coast of Oman,” the Indian ministry of external affairs had said on Wednesday.
Data from Kpler, a global-ship tracking firm, shows one vessel has crossed the Strait of Hormuz so far on Thursday, and another one crossed on Wednesday, as military clashes between the United States and Iran have heightened tensions in the vital waterway. Those crossing numbers are down from earlier in the week; six ships crossed on Tuesday, and eight on Monday, Kpler found.
The data might not reflect the full number of crossings, because ships can turn off or misdirect their location signals to avoid being tracked. In a report published Thursday, Kpler found that non-Iranian crude oil shipments have picked up since Tehran initially closed the strait — but the vast majority of that traffic has been through dark transits or other workarounds.
Iran’s speaker of Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, warned on Thursday that further escalation by the United States could threaten energy infrastructure and global markets.
“Wrong strategies and impulsive decisions will reset the entire board for the worse,” Ghalibaf wrote on social media, adding that the United States would see “a different Iran.”
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Tehran on Monday.Credit…Arash Khamooshi/Polaris for The New York Times
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