US President Donald Trump called off strikes on Iran Thursday evening, claiming an agreement had been reached and would be signed shortly.

He later said the document should “get done in the next few days,” possibly in time for a signing in Europe this weekend.

Trump has repeatedly claimed a deal with Iran was at hand or massive US strikes there were imminent, only for the talks to stall or the president to back out. According to Axios, he again backed out and declared a deal to be imminent on Thursday after Qatari mediators and Iranian negotiators reached what they considered an acceptable draft.

The US news site also reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not given a heads-up before Trump’s announcement, which caught him off guard.

Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump said: “Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have, as president of the United States of America, cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening.”

“Discussions and final points have been, in both concept and great detail, approved by all parties involved, including the United States, Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Turkey, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt and others,” he said.

But he added that the US blockade on Iran-linked shipping would “remain in full force and effect until this transaction is finalized” — indicating the deal has not been finalized.

“Time and place of the signing to be announced shortly,” Trump continued.

Following Trump’s comments, a senior Israeli official told Channel 12 news that Israel was not aware of a finalized deal.

Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign ministry said Tehran had not yet made a final decision on a possible agreement with the US and would not compromise on its “red lines” in negotiations, according to the official IRNA news agency.

Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said reports regarding a time and place of signing the agreement remained speculative, and that nothing was finalized. He added that a large part of the negotiating text was finalized, but the US repeatedly changed its positions during the talks.

Nonetheless, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that “We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran, subject to finalization of documents. It should get done in the next few days.”

“Maybe over the weekend. In Europe,” he said, adding that he could not attend but that his vice president JD Vance and top negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner would........

© The Times of Israel