**WASHINGTON** — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he had canceled further U.S. strikes on Iran and claimed the war with the Islamic Republic was “ended.”
“I don’t know if you heard, but we ended the war with Iran today,” Trump said during a tele-rally for Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a Republican running for governor. “They have agreed never to have a nuclear weapon, something that we insisted on; that was the whole purpose. That was 95 percent of it.”
Trump said a U.S. Navy blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would remain in place until a formal agreement was signed. He indicated that interested parties would meet in Switzerland to finish the deal. Reports said a signing could come as soon as Sunday, ahead of a G7 meeting in that country.
Israel had not publicly commented as of Friday on the latest draft memorandum of understanding reported by Iranian state media. Trump said he had discussed the potential agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other leaders in the region, focusing on the talks and the framework of a possible understanding with Iran.
On Truth Social, Trump wrote that discussions with Iran had been “brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved,” and that he had therefore “cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening.” He said the “final points” had been approved “in both concept and great detail” by the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt “and others.” The naval blockade, he said, would stay in “full force and effect until this Transaction is finalized.”
Netanyahu’s office later confirmed the call. It said Israel was not a direct party to the negotiations but welcomed Trump’s pledge that any final deal would tightly restrict Iran’s nuclear program and address other destabilizing activity by the regime.
About 25 percent of the world’s seaborne oil shipments and roughly 20 percent of global liquefied natural gas exports pass through the Strait of Hormuz, making the waterway a central energy chokepoint throughout the conflict.
Markets reacted Friday to hopes of a diplomatic opening. The pan-European Stoxx 600 rose 1.8 percent, with most major indexes up about 2 percent in morning trading. U.S. crude futures for July delivery fell 1.61 percent, and August Brent dropped 1.75 percent as traders priced in a lower risk of supply disruption, CNBC reported.
The announcement followed a week of mixed signals. Trump had privately warned Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst of impending U.S. action hours before American forces struck Iranian military infrastructure earlier in the week. After talks stalled, he wrote that Iran’s military was “a complete and total mess,” that much of its naval and air power “doesn’t even exist anymore,” and that Iranian leaders would “pay the price.” U.S. Central Command said additional self-defense strikes began at 5:15 p.m. Eastern on Thursday against multiple targets in Iran at the president’s direction — before Trump later said those planned follow-on attacks had been called off.
