President Donald Trump says the United States will hold off on any military action against Iranian power plants and energy sites for the next five days.
The move follows Iran’s warning that it would seal the Strait of Hormuz completely if Trump followed through on his threat to bomb Tehran’s power facilities.
Trump had given Tehran a 48-hour deadline on Saturday, set to expire Monday. But in a Truth Social post Sunday, he put the strikes on ice, citing “very good and productive conversations” between Washington and Tehran.
Oil prices promptly dropped more than 13 percent. They had climbed above $100 a barrel last week after Iran’s attacks on ships tightened the chokehold on the strait.
Those same ship attacks pushed Trump to vow he would wipe out Iranian power plants—“starting with the biggest one first”—unless the waterway reopened to traffic.
Tehran has not publicly said whether talks took place, but on Sunday the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned that any company with U.S. ownership would be “completely destroyed” if Iranian energy sites were hit.
Power plants in countries hosting U.S. bases would also become “legitimate targets,” the IRGC added.
Diplomatic traffic surged over the weekend as both sides traded threats. Several governments reportedly stepped in to keep the clash from spiraling.
Trump says one U.S. goal is shielding Middle Eastern allies—Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Kuwait—from Iranian strikes that have intensified since the war began nearly a month ago.
