U.S. President Donald Trump said on the 2nd (local time) that he had reached an agreement with Iran on the key issue of the Strait of Hormuz and "there will be a nuclear deal."
Trump met with reporters aboard his plane returning to Washington, D.C., from Morristown, New Jersey, that day and said, "Negotiations on the Hormuz issue have been concluded, and then there will be an agreement (deal) on the nuclear issue, which could also be called 'Iran's denuclearization.'"
He said that if the originally planned strike had been carried out, it "would have been the largest attack since World War II," and added that he would see whether a deal could be reached. He then said talks with Iran would begin on the afternoon of the 3rd.
Regarding why he canceled the strike, Trump said, "If an ally asks for a pause, you can't help but say 'let's wait a little longer,'" adding, "They said they strongly prefer a deal over a strike because they don't know where a strike would lead."
Earlier, foreign media including Axios reported that just before Trump abruptly put on hold a strike against Iran on the 1st, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman conveyed concerns about a strike on Iran and urged restraint from air raids.
Trump had initially planned, together with Israel, a large-scale airstrike over the weekend targeting infrastructure inside Iran, but on the 1st he abruptly canceled the strike on Iran, setting a "swift deal" as a condition.