Trump Calls Off New Iran Strikes After Saudi Pressure

On Sunday, President Donald Trump announced that the United States would not move forward with the fresh air‑strikes he had been circling for the past few days. The decision came just after a phone call from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who urged the president to rethink any major military action against Tehran.

According to several sources familiar with the discussions, the Saudi delegation – led by the Crown Prince himself and, earlier in the week, Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman – pressed Washington for calm. Prince Khalid met with Vice President J.D. Vance and later with Trump, conveying Riyadh’s fear that a new U.S. offensive could spark a chain reaction of retaliation against Gulf oil infrastructure.

“The Saudis expressed concern and asked for clarity about the plan of action,” one U.S. official told Axios. A second source added that the Crown Prince went a step further, urging Trump to de‑escalate entirely and avoid launching any strikes at all.

Saudi Arabia’s stance is not an isolated one. Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Pakistan have also been quietly nudging both Washington and Tehran toward restraint. Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, acted as a mediator, holding talks with Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, who warned that any hostile move by the U.S. or its allies would be met with a “decisive and proportionate response.”

At the same time, the United States is still wrestling with the fallout from Iran’s recent missile attack on a U.S. base in Jordan and the ongoing disruption of shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. While Trump has floated the idea of hitting Iranian energy sites, no final order has been issued, and the possibility of a broader escalation remains in the balance.

Qatari mediators have been working behind the scenes, holding separate talks with Araghchi, White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Omani officials to try to reopen the Hormuz channel. Sources say the conversations have made some headway, though it is still unclear whether they will be enough to defuse the simmering crisis.

For now, Saudi Arabia continues to be one of Washington’s closest allies in the region, and its diplomatic pressure appears to have tipped the scales. Whether this reprieve will hold, or whether new flashpoints will emerge, remains to be seen.