Trump says Mideast allies have reached outlines of deal to end Iran war, says US to stop new strikes

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump in a Saturday evening social media post claimed that Mideast allies have reached the parameters of a deal to end the Iran war and said that he would hold off on ordering new strikes in the five-month old conflict for now.

Trump added that the emerging deal “would include the Immediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT, and an end to Iran’s nuclear threat.”

“Based on this request, I have agreed, for the future benefit of the WORLD and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran, to cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL,” Trump said.

He said that Israel has agreed to join the U.S. in the commitment to try to complete the agreement with Iran that would bring about an end to the war.

Iran did not offer any immediate public reaction to Trump's announcement.

The president's announcement marked another remarkable turn in the conflict — only a day after he suggested to reporters that he was close to resuming heavy military strikes to force the regime to come to the negotiating table.

The U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, starting a war that Trump said was aimed at destroying Tehran’s missile capabilities, preventing it from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ending its support for allied armed groups. But the stated goals and timelines for the conflict have repeatedly shifted.

An interim agreement reached in mid-June halted the fighting and was supposed to pave the way for a permanent deal, but it crumbled within weeks as Iran resumed attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

Earlier Saturday, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto leader, in a phone call with Trump raised concerns about the U.S. potentially escalating the conflict with Iran, according to a person familiar with the leaders’ discussion.

The discussion, which was first reported on by the news outlet Axios, came as Trump weighed whether to carry out new strikes on Iran.

The Saudis, according to the person briefed on the substance of the call but not authorized to comment publicly, are concerned that if the U.S. targets Iran’s energy infrastructure or carries out massive strikes on bridges or power plants that Tehran could respond by carrying out attacks on the kingdom’s and other Gulf countries’ energy infrastructure.

The crown prince during Saturday’s call sought clarity from Trump on what potential new action he’s weighing to take against Iran, the person said.

A White House official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity, confirmed the leaders spoke on Saturday but did not offer any detail about their conversation.

Saudi Arabia earlier this week joined the U.S. in striking multiple logistics and weapons sites used by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, but has been urging the U.S. and Iran to get back to the negotiating table to find an endgame to the conflict.

The crown prince also dispatched his brother, Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman, to Washington on Wednesday for separate meetings with Trump and Vice President JD Vance to discuss Iran strategy.

And Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday at the White House, their first in-person meeting since launching the war in February. The Israeli leader has urged Trump to continue to prosecute the war against Iran.

The stakes for continued U.S. military action are high for Trump and his party as the conflict, unpopular among many Americans, has jolted the world economy just months before critical midterm elections in November.

The president had vowed to take retaliatory action after the U.S. military thwarted a surprise attack earlier this week by Iran on a U.S. base in Jordan.

Trump on Friday displayed his growing frustration with the conflict, telling reporters that “we just want to win” in Iran and that the U.S. will hit Iran “very hard” until they can’t take it anymore. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt echoed the president, noting that Tehran last month signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. on a truce but then quickly “broke it, shot at commercial ships, and killed American soldiers.”

U.S. officials were on edge ahead of Trump's Saturday evening statement. And Trump himself in his social media post said that the U.S. military was “locked and loaded” and prepared to display “levels of Military Terror, Strength, and Power not seen since World War II.”

Earlier in the day, the U.S. State Department issued new security alerts for Americans in 10 countries in the region to exercise heightened caution due to the escalating tensions with Iran.

The warnings — covering Bahrain, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates — urged U.S. citizens to prepare for the possibility of flight cancellations, temporary airspace closures and other travel disruptions.

Meanwhile, Kuwait’s military said Saturday that its forces responded to drone attacks by Iran.

In a statement, Maj. Gen. Saud Abdulaziz Al-Otaibi, spokesperson for Kuwait’s Defense Ministry, said the drones hit “a number of vital facilities,” including a government structure in the country’s north. He said there were no casualties.

The British Navy said Saturday that a tanker was struck and a separate explosion hit close to a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Oman. No casualties were reported in either incident, it said. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Organization said an unknown projectile hit the vessel on Friday 11 nautical miles northeast of Lima, Oman. The attack damaged the vessel’s engine room.

The group said that on Saturday a large splash and an explosion were reported close to another tanker while it was sailing 21 nautical miles northwest of Khasab city.

A man paddles a stand-up paddleboard as cargo ships and other commercial vessels appear anchored in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Monday, July 27, 2026. (Razieh Poudat/ISNA via AP)

FILE - President Donald Trump listens as Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, Dec. 29, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump stands with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on his visit to the White House, Nov. 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

President Donald Trump, center, walks from Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J., Friday, July 31, 2026, from Camp David, the presidential retreat. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

CEUTA, Spain (AP) — Ceuta over the weekend no longer looked like a city on edge, but the events of the week were still on everyone’s minds.

Most of the 60,000 migrants who swam, scrambled and later charged into the tiny Spanish exclave in North Africa this week had walked back to Morocco by Sunday, while others tried to blend in and stay on. Spanish civil guard ships continued searching for migrant bodies in the waters near the stretch of urban beach that tens of thousand of migrants had breached days earlier.

Shops in Ceuta reopened, and the usual blend of residents and tourists in the city of 84,000 were filling the open-air terraces, restaurants and cafes.

But the city that prides itself on being home to four cultures was still grappling with the aftermath of the border surge, with locals disagreeing on what caused it and who exactly is to blame.

At least 72 migrants died, including some who drowned and others who were killed in a stampede to cross a breakwater barrier, Spanish authorities said Sunday. The humanitarian crisis caused by the sudden rush of people has reignited a debate around immigration in Europe and beyond.

“It's not the young men's fault,” said Mohamad Abdelkader Driss, 44, a waiter at a fried fish restaurant in town. “If you open the border, of course everyone comes in, but the young men aren't to blame. The authorities are responsible.”

Some migrants who returned to Morocco described a border that was effectively open and said authorities did little as they watched thousands of people cross.

The unauthorized arrivals on Thursday and Friday of 50,000 to 60,000, mostly young men, swelled Ceuta's population by more than half. Abdelkader lamented what happened, but said that those who breached the border behaved relatively well.

“It could have been much worse,” he said.

Over the weekend, far-right, anti-immigrant Spanish politicians and well-known right-wing influencers descended on the city, sparking counterprotests that included members of the Spanish city's large Muslim population, many of whom are of Moroccan descent.

Alvise Pérez, a far-right Spanish politician and member of the European Parliament, called on Saturday evening for migrants to be expelled as he faced an angry crowd of rival protesters. Pérez eventually had to shelter in a bar as residents banged on the windows, until police escorted him away.

Among the counterprotesters on Saturday was 20-year-old Ceuta resident and student Noor Ahmed. She denounced the protest and presence of figures like Pérez in her city as opportunistic.

“They just want to take advantage of the humanitarian crisis Ceuta is currently experiencing,” Ahmed said.

Santiago Abascal, the leader of the far-right Vox party, visited Ceuta on Sunday, slamming the Spanish government for the surge in migrant arrivals, which he called “an invasion.”

“The frontiers of Ceuta and Melilla are the walls of our home and homeland, and they are not being protected by a corrupt and traitorous government,” he said.

Some locals, even acknowledging Ceuta's population of Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus that normally live in relative harmony, worried about what the week revealed about the city.

Eva Barrientos, a resident of Ceuta who works at a logistics company, came to the protest on Saturday evening to see what Pérez and the other right-wing figures had to say. She was confident that something similar would happen again and questioned the loyalty that some of Ceuta's foreign-born residents had to Spain.

“In Ceuta, we have always lived together. We have four cultures living very well, without any problems,” she said. “But the only thing we are realizing now is that there is an enemy within.”

And she accused some foreign-born residents of having more loyalty to Morocco than the country in which they lived.

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday said he was “following with concern the alarming situation in Ceuta, asking God … that solutions of peace, stability and justice may be found.”

Migration has been one of Pope Leo’s priorities, which he underlined during a recent visit to the Canary Islands in Spain, one of Europe’s main migrant entry ports.

Escorted by the Spanish army, migrants who crossed into Spain return to Morocco from the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Sempere)

Guardia Civil officers recover the body of a migrant from the water in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Sempere)

Ceuta residents gather for a counterprotest against a rally by a far-right nationalist and racist movement in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Spanish far-right politician Alvise Pérez waves a Spanish flag while under police protection as Ceuta residents, not pictured, protest his presence in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Ceuta residents demonstrate against the arrival of Spanish far-right politician Alvise Pérez in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, Saturday, Aug. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)