Trump Calls Off Planned Strikes on Iran, Saying the "Perimeters of a Deal" Have Been Agreed To

President Trump said in a social media post late Saturday, Aug. 1, that the United States would cancel a planned attack on Iran because Iran and other Middle Eastern countries had asked the U.S. "to hold off any attack" and because "the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to." He wrote that the U.S. remained "locked and loaded and ready to go," and that the cancellation was "subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL." He said the proposed terms would include the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and an end to Iran's nuclear threat, and that Israel had joined the pause. News reports earlier in the week had indicated the U.S. and Israel were preparing to strike Iranian energy infrastructure over the weekend.

The reversal came two days after the president told his Cabinet at Camp David that the U.S. would be "hitting them very hard." Announcing and then withdrawing a strike decision by social media post, without a published framework or notification process, leaves Congress, allied governments and the public dependent on the president's own account of what was agreed and by whom. Congress has voted repeatedly on war powers resolutions related to the Iran conflict without resolving the underlying authorization question.

As of Aug. 2, Iran had not confirmed any agreement. Mehr, a semi-official Iranian news agency, dismissed the account as "simply a new lie," citing unnamed Iranian military officials. No text of a proposed deal has been released.