STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
President Trump once more backed out of threats to unleash strikes on Iran.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
On Wednesday, he said the U.S. would be, quote, "hitting them very hard." Saturday night, he called the strikes off. In a few minutes, we'll hear analysis of the view from Tehran with Iran policy expert Karim Sadjadpour. But first, we'll get up to speed on what's been a recurring cycle of attacks, threats and quick stabs at negotiations.
INSKEEP: NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi has been covering all of this from Istanbul. Welcome.
HADEEL AL-SHALCHI, BYLINE: Thank you.
INSKEEP: Why did the president say he canceled his strikes?
AL-SHALCHI: Well, President Trump said that his allies, including Saudi Arabia, had talked him out of a series of renewed attacks. Yesterday, the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, said he'd called Trump by phone and that he, quote, "affirmed the necessity of prioritizing the language of dialogue to reduce escalation." Of course, Saudi Arabia was at the receiving end as Iran targeted U.S. bases in the Gulf and Jordan in response to U.S. strikes. In March, a U.S. service member was killed by an Iranian strike on a base in Saudi Arabia.
And then on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump wrote that the, quote, "perimeters of a deal were reached" to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end Iran's nuclear capabilities. Here's Trump speaking to reporters Sunday evening on Air Force One.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I was asked to by Saudi Arabia, by UAE and by Qatar and by Iran. We were all set to go, just about at this time right now, and it would have been a massive attack. We were all set to go. But when the allies asked to call it off, you got to sort of say, well, let's see. And the reason they asked is they think there's a deal.
AL-SHALCHI: Yeah. So he said that they were close to a deal and that talks will, in fact, start today, but Iran didn't confirm this yet. We're yet to hear about what the potential deal could look like, what those perimeters are. We haven't heard from the Iranians about the deal. We do know that over the weekend, Iran's foreign minister had a whole series of phone calls with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and mediator Pakistan. He also told them that Iran will strike if it is attacked again.
And like you mentioned, this has become a cyclical pattern. Trump threatens, strikes, pulls back, saying a diplomatic solution has been reached. Rinse and repeat. He's done it several times since a deal with Iran was struck initially in April.
INSKEEP: And I'm just noticing what feels like a contradiction now, Hadeel. If he's saying we're close to a deal and talks will start today, that implies...
AL-SHALCHI: Right.
INSKEEP: ...Maybe there's a little more work to do than the president would have said, just judging by his own words. And the president keeps encountering an Iran that is more defiant than he would like.
AL-SHALCHI: Absolutely. I mean, Trump and his secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, have repeatedly said that the U.S. has delivered blows to Iran's military capabilities, that they've completely destroyed them. But every time the U.S. strikes, Iran is able to respond. And they're targeting these U.S. installations in the Gulf and Jordan and making damage, and so we've seen, also, this war widen. Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthis have also gotten involved. They imposed a blockade on Saudi ships in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which is a choke point and connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. And then last week, Iran attacked two gas tankers, one belonging to the U.S., near Egypt's Suez Canal.
INSKEEP: I notice that each Iranian attack and each U.S. head fake seems to move oil markets.
AL-SHALCHI: I mean, yesterday, oil prices plummeted after the Trump announcement that he'd hold off on those strikes. The price of Brent crude - the global benchmark for oil - fell 8% to about $83 per barrel yesterday. The price of oil has been on a roller coaster since the war started at the end of February, hitting over $100 a barrel many times. And earlier in the day, OPEC approved an increase of oil production to about 188,000 barrels a day.
INSKEEP: NPR's Hadeel Al-Shalchi. Thanks so much.
AL-SHALCHI: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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