Trump says talks on Iran war will begin on Monday after he holds off on ‘massive’ strikes

President Donald Trump said new talks to wind down the war in Iran will start Monday afternoon, after announcing he is holding off on new massive strikes he had threatened to unleash on the country. The talks will seek to end the conflict and revive stalled cargo traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway through which about a fifth of all traded oil and natural gas passed before the war. Iranian state media quoted the country’s foreign ministry as saying Tehran was not currently holding negotiations with the United States.

In Gaza, local hospitals said at least 17 were killed in Israeli strikes over the weekend, including children. A strike on a residential apartment in southern Gaza killed three family members including a 4-year-old child, according to Nasser hospital, where the bodies arrived. The Israeli military said the strikes had targeted militant operatives.

Here is a look at the most important developments in the Middle East today. Trump announces renewed talks Trump said Sunday he decided not to carry out major strikes against Iran at the urging of Gulf allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. He said a plan was in place for U.S.

forces to carry out “the biggest attack since World War II,” but he decided to give diplomacy more time after hearing from key Gulf leaders, as well as at the request of unnamed Iranian officials. “Now what we’re doing is we’re talking to them in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon,” he said.

He did not provide further details or say who would be involved in the talks. Trump has had a pattern of threatening massive strikes which he later calls off, with the announcements often later upended by renewed attacks. The abrupt shifts have been a defining feature of the five-month war that has upended global markets and sent the prices of fuel and other basic goods soaring.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, said Monday that Tehran was not currently holding negotiations with the United States. He said ongoing talks were with Oman, the country that lies on the other side of the Strait of Hormuz, and were focused only on establishing a temporary route for safe navigation through the strait. Iran executes two men it says spied for Israel Iran’s judiciary said it executed two men on Monday after convicting them of spying for Israel during both last …