U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the United States may need to hit Iran again and he was only an hour away from deciding on a strike before he postponed the attack.
"I was an hour away from making the decision to go today," Trump told reporters at the White House. "Whether it's popular or not popular, I have to do it — because I'm not going to let the world be blown up on my watch. It's not going to happen."
Trump said Iran's leaders are begging to make a deal, but a new U.S. attack would happen in the coming days if a deal is not reached.
"Well, I mean, I'm saying two or three days, maybe Friday, Saturday, Sunday, something, maybe early next week, a limited period of time, because we can't let them have a new nuclear weapon," said the US President.
In Tehran, Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian parliament's national security committee, said on X that pausing an attack was due to Trump's realization that any move against Iran would mean "facing a decisive military response".
Iranian state media said Tehran's latest peace proposal involves ending hostilities on all fronts including Lebanon, the exit of U.S. forces from areas close to Iran, and reparations for destruction caused by the U.S.-Israeli attacks.
Tehran also sought the lifting of sanctions, release of frozen funds and end to the U.S. marine blockade, according to Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi as cited by IRNA news agency.
The terms as described in the Iranian reports appeared little changed from Iran's previous offer, which Trump rejected last week as "garbage".
Trump said on Monday that Washington would be satisfied if it could reach an agreement that prevented Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
"There seems to be a very good chance that they can work something out. If we can do that without bombing the hell out of them, I would be very happy," Trump told reporters.
