US President Donald Trump announced that renewed negotiations between the US and Iran will begin on Monday afternoon, while speaking to reporters onboard Air Force One on Sunday.
Trump also stated that military strikes against Iran over the weekend were called off after Saudi Arabian, Emirati, and Qatari negotiators called him and said that they thought that "a deal was imminent, both regarding the Hormuz Strait, and ultimately the denuclearization of Iran."
"When I heard that I said 'well, do we want to go and be this severe?'" Trump asked, adding "There is a group of people that would like me to just [go ahead with the strikes], and there's another group of people that does not want me to do it."
The President told reporters that the Saudi Crown Prince had asked him to hold off on striking Iran because the outcome of an attack would be unpredictable and could cause "a lot of bad things."
Planned US strikes on Iran would have been largest since WWII
Trump said that the US military had been "all set to go, and it would have been a massive attack," adding that talks with Iran had the potential to "save a lot of lives."
The US was prepared to launch an attack on Iran "that would have been the biggest attack since World War II, which would have been disastrous for them," Trump explained.
The President has not set a deadline as to when a deal with Iran needs to be reached, however he explained that although the US was holding off on striking Iran, "we can do it any time we want to."
He added that he would prefer that the US reached a deal with Iran over continuing strikes, and he told reporters that "I'm not looking to kill people," but the planned strikes would "cause a lot of people to die."
On Saturday night Trump called for an immediate deal with Iran in a post on Truth Social, saying that the deal would need to include "the Immediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT, and an end to Iran’s nuclear threat."
He explained that the USA was "locked and loaded and ready to go against the Islamic Republic of Iran, at levels of Military Terror, Strength, and Power not seen since World War II," adding that he had agreed to cancel the strikes as long as Iran agreed to quickly make a deal.