Donald Trump revealed that he halted a massive planned military strike on Iran he described as potentially the largest since WWII following regional appeals that convinced him a nuclear deal was close.
Speaking on Air Force One Sunday, Trump confirmed that American allies in the Middle East convinced him to stand down on the ‘massive attack’ on Iran.
‘I was asked to by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, by Qatar, and by Iran to hold off strikes. It would have been a massive attack,’ Trump said about pausing the offensive.
‘When the allies asked to call it off, you gotta say, “Well, let’s see.” And the reason why they asked is because I think there’s a deal.’
Before calling off the attack on Sunday, the president claimed he was ‘locked and loaded’ to launch an offensive on Iran.
Talks with the Iranians on the nuclear deal are scheduled to begin tomorrow, the President said.
There’s a deal on Hormuz and there’s a deal on the nuclear, or you might call it the denuclearization of Iran,’ Trump said Sunday.
Trump continued that the US ‘had an attack planned that would have been the biggest attack since World War II’ that he said would have been ‘disastrous’ for Tehran.
‘They didn’t want us to do it. And frankly, Saudi Arabia didn’t want it either. I thought a deal was imminent,’ he said.
Trump said he spoke specifically to the Crown Prince and confirmed his preference for dealmaking over an attack.
