U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a “great settlement” with Iran to end the Middle East war, saying he expected a deal to be signed in Europe as soon as this weekend.
The agreement, if finalized, would be the most significant diplomatic breakthrough yet to end the three-month war, which has killed thousands of people and sent global energy prices sharply higher.
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that Tehran is likely to approve the agreement, though it has yet to give a formal response.
“We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Vice President JD Vance could sign for the United States, he added.
Trump also said the key Strait of Hormuz would officially be opened as soon as the agreement is signed.
“The strait will officially open as soon as we sign, which could be soon, very soon, maybe over the weekend in Europe,” he said.
Trump said he had just talked to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and had also spoken with the leaders of Qatar, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and others.
He said he would soon speak to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The deal resolved the issue of Iran pursuing the development of a nuclear weapon, he said.
“Most importantly, we have a deal that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, which was the whole purpose of what we had to go through to get this. So it was a very big thing,” he said
The announcement came hours after Trump announced that he had canceled planned strikes against Iran on Thursday evening, saying “final points” of an initial peace deal had been approved and details of a signing ceremony would be announced shortly.
The cancellation of strikes came hours after the president said the U.S. military would attack Iran for a third consecutive night, while he had also threatened to seize control of its oil and gas industries.
Since mid-March, Trump has repeatedly claimed that a deal with Iran to end the war is close. The two sides have traded strikes throughout the week, straining a cease-fire announced in April. Still, Iranian and Western sources said earlier on Thursday that efforts to reach an interim deal to end hostilities have intensified.
U.S. stocks rose and oil prices fell on the news.
The war has killed thousands of people, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, and pushed up global oil prices since the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran on Feb. 28.
