President Trump announced late Saturday that he had canceled a planned large-scale attack on Iran’s energy infrastructure, saying negotiators had agreed on the “perimeters of a deal” just days after he warned Tehran was being “decimated” and that the Pentagon was preparing fresh strikes.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the decision to halt the joint U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign followed direct appeals from Iran and regional powers, including what he described as an urgent phone call from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He said the emerging agreement calls for the “immediate, complete, and total opening of the Strait of Hormuz” and a definitive resolution of Iran’s nuclear program, while warning that the United States remains “locked and loaded” with military capability “not seen since World War II” if a final agreement is not reached quickly.
A whiplash week
The reversal capped one of the most volatile weeks yet in the monthslong standoff between Washington and Tehran. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing unnamed U.S. officials, that Trump had ordered the Pentagon to prepare fresh strikes on Iran as soon as this past weekend, according to reporting by MS NOW. During a Cabinet meeting at Camp David the same day, Trump sharply criticized Iranian negotiators and said the United States would be “hitting them very hard” in the coming weeks, adding, “You know, at some point they’re going to say, ‘We just can’t take it anymore.'”
Trump also told reporters at that Camp David meeting that Iran was being “decimated,” even as he questioned separately whether the United States should continue sending Patriot missile defense systems to Ukraine, according to Fox News.
Just a day later, Trump reversed course entirely, framing the cancellation of the strikes as a diplomatic breakthrough rather than a retreat. Al Jazeera reported that his shifting rhetoric, threatening devastating strikes one day and announcing a deal the next — has fueled confusion among allies and analysts about the administration’s actual position.
Months of on-again, off-again diplomacy
The latest reversal fits a pattern that has defined the Trump administration’s approach to Iran since a US-Israeli bombing campaign began in February. That operation, launched February 28, killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei along with numerous senior officials and hundreds of civilians, according to Al Jazeera reporting at the time, with Trump framing the campaign as aimed at “liberation for the people” of Iran even as U.S. officials publicly emphasized more limited goals of dismantling Tehran’s nuclear and missile capabilities.
A temporary ceasefire followed in April after Trump warned in a social media post that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if Iran did not accept a deal reopening the Strait of Hormuz, according to PBS NewsHour. Iran ultimately proposed what Trump called a “workable” ten-point framework, and the two sides agreed to a two-week ceasefire.
Negotiations continued through the spring, with Axios reporting in May that Trump personally intervened in a Situation Room meeting to demand changes to a draft agreement his own envoys had negotiated with Iranian counterparts, particularly around provisions covering Iran’s nuclear materials. By June, NPR reported that the two sides had reached a preliminary framework that would lift the U.S. naval blockade on Iran, establish a 60-day window to resolve remaining hostilities, and create a reconstruction fund of “at least $300 billion” for Iran, financed partly by Gulf Arab nations.
What the emerging deal would require
The framework described in Trump’s Saturday announcement builds on months of incremental steps, most centrally the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, a passage through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil, gas and fertilizer shipments pass in peacetime. The June framework had already included a suspension of tolls Iran had imposed on vessels transiting the strait, though ships were still required to seek permission from a newly created Iranian authority.
Financial concessions remain a central and unresolved piece of the puzzle. The June memorandum indicated the U.S. would work with regional partners to unfreeze billions of dollars in Iranian assets, with an Iranian military adviser to the supreme leader stating Tehran was seeking the release of $24 billion specifically. The Trump administration has also signaled it intends to issue sanctions waivers allowing Iran to resume oil sales immediately, even before a final agreement is signed.
The administration has continued to pair diplomatic engagement with economic pressure. A White House fact sheet from February detailed an executive order reaffirming a national emergency with respect to Iran and establishing a tariff system targeting any country that purchases goods or services from Iran, part of what the administration described as a broader effort to hold Tehran accountable for its nuclear pursuits, support for terrorism and ballistic missile development.
Credibility questions mount
The rapid swings between threats of overwhelming force and announcements of imminent deals have drawn scrutiny from foreign policy analysts. Commentary examined in a segment questioning “Trump’s Iran policy” argued that the president’s shifting positions risk weakening U.S. credibility with both adversaries and allies, complicating diplomacy with Gulf countries that have been drawn into mediating the conflict.
Gulf states have grown increasingly anxious about the volatility. MS NOW reported that regional governments were bracing for renewed disruptions after Trump’s Friday warning that the U.S. would strike Iran “very hard,” a threat that came before his abrupt weekend reversal announcing the strikes were called off in favor of a deal.
Separately, Trump used the same week to announce progress on another regional front, unveiling what he described as an agreement to disarm Hamas, according to Bloomberg’s Balance of Power program, suggesting the administration is attempting to project simultaneous momentum across multiple Middle East files even as the Iran negotiations remain unresolved.
With Trump having set no firm public deadline for finalizing the Iran agreement beyond his warning that U.S. forces remain “locked and loaded,” the coming days are likely to determine whether the announced “perimeters of a deal” translate into a signed accord or mark another pause in a conflict that has already cycled through strikes, ceasefires, and renewed threats since February.