Trump Says Talks with Iran Will Resume Monday After Canceling Attack

President Trump. (Twitter/@ZelenskyyUa)

JAKARTA - US President Donald Trump said talks with Iran would resume on Monday, after he said he had called off a "major attack" on the country.

"They know the scale of the attack because they saw it forming. Now what we are doing is talking to them in the form of negotiations. Starting tomorrow (Monday) afternoon, and we'll see," Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday after spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, quoted from CNN (3/8).

Earlier, Trump said on Sunday morning that the US was "ready to fight the Islamic Republic" but that Tehran and other Middle Eastern countries had asked him to delay a new attack.

President Trump said he was asked to call off attacks planned by allies such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Iran.

"We were ready, but when the allies asked to cancel it, they made us say, 'Okay, let's see.' And the reason they asked was because they thought there was an agreement," he said.

"There was an agreement on Hormuz, and then there will be an agreement on nuclear, or you might call it Iran's denuclearization. I call it Iran's denuclearization," Trump continued.

President Trump declined to answer questions about whether the attack would target energy targets and still emphasized in a Truth Social post on Saturday that the United States remained "on alert and ready to strike" Iran.

Separately, Iranian state media denied it had asked Trump to halt the planned attack.

Meanwhile, the acting Minister of Defense Majid Ibn al-Reza, said on Sunday according to government media, Iran considers any threat from its enemies as "real and credible" even if it is part of a psychological war, quoted by Al Arabiya.

"We will not be negligent or remain passive," he said, adding that Iran would use threats as a basis for increasing its military readiness, strengthening deterrence, and improving its military capabilities.