Donald Trump said on Thursday he had cancelled strikes against Iran after warning earlier in the day that the United States could hit the country very hard. The abrupt shift left the fate of the military threat unclear, even as he said negotiations with Tehran had been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved.
Trump made the comments in the Oval Office and said, "Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail, approved by all parties involved," a line that suggested a deal was close. He also said a memorandum of understanding with Iran could be signed this weekend, possibly in Europe.
The reason readers are watching this so closely is simple: the same day Trump talked down the possibility of strikes, he also kept the pressure on Iran. He threatened to hit the country very hard and raised the possibility of taking over Kharg Island, a major oil terminal off Iran’s coast, deepening the sense that military action was still on the table.
That is where the gap widens. Iran said a deal was still not finalised and warned the United States of an "endless quagmire that you will be stuck in for years" if more strikes came. The memorandum of understanding Trump described is not a final deal; it is only an agreement to negotiate in good faith toward one, which leaves the real test ahead rather than behind.
Ghoncheh Habibiazad, a media analyst, said Iranian outlets are often read through their politics, with hardliners and reformists framing the same event in sharply different ways. That matters here because several Iranian outlets called Trump’s cancellation of the attacks a retreat, while a hardline outlet close to the IRGC accused him of making "several false and paradoxical claims" since the start of the war on 28 February. The split tells its own story: even when the White House signals movement, Tehran’s press is treating the same announcement as proof that Trump can still change course.
For now, the practical answer is that the strikes were called off, not settled. If the memorandum is signed this weekend, possibly in Europe, it would mark another step in talks that are still incomplete, not a final peace. Trump’s reversal may have lowered the immediate danger, but it has not removed the threat, and it has not produced the final deal Iran says does not yet exist.
