Trump halts US strikes on power plants after 'very good conversations' with Iran
US President Donald Trump has backed down from threats to bomb Iranian power plants following what he described on Monday morning as "very good and productive conversations" with Iran.
The Iranian foreign ministry denied these conversations had taken place and the Islamic Republic's embassy in Kabul said Trump had backed down from striking power plants after Iran warned the US it would bomb energy sites across the Middle East.
On Saturday, Trump had warned that Iranian power plants would be destroyed if Tehran failed to “fully open” the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping within 48 hours.
But in a post on his Truth Social platform on Monday morning, Trump said he had ordered the Pentagon to halt strikes on Iranian energy infrastructure for a five-day period in light of positive talks.
The price of oil and gas immediately fell and markets rallied following the US president's announcement, with unusual trading activity noted just five minutes before Trump's post.
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Wall Street futures immediately jumped two percent, while Europe's STOXX 600 and precious metals turned positive.
"No negotiations have been held with the US, and fake news is used to manipulate the financial and oil markets and escape the quagmire in which the US and Israel are trapped," Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, the Iranian parliament speaker, said on social media.
Trump posted that productive conversations between the US and Iran had taken place over the last two days "regarding a complete and total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East".
The US president said that "based on the tenor and tone of these in depth, detailed and constructvive conversations", which would continue through the week, he had instructed the Pentagon to postpone "any and all military strikes against Iranian power plans and energy infrastructure for a five day period".
Trump wrote that this instruction was "subject to the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions".
US talking to 'a top person' in Iran
Later on Monday, Trump told reporters on the tarmac at West Palm Beach airport in Florida that Iran "very much wants to make a deal" and that "we would like to make a deal too".
He said that his two main negotiators, US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, had led "very strong talks" with Iranian counterparts.
Trump said that Witkoff was talking to "a top person" in Iran. "Don't forget we've wiped out the leadership phase one, phase two and largely phase three," the US president said.
Asked if this "top person" was the new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, Trump said that it was not and claimed that Khamenei might be dead. He said he did not want to say who the US was negotiating with because he didn't want that person to be killed.
The talks, Trump said, took place on Sunday and would continue, "probably by phone" because, he said, it was hard for Iranian leaders to leave the country.
He said that at some point soon US and Iranian leaders would meet in person. US allies in the Middle East were, Trump said, "very much in mind".
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