Melissa Clarke: US President Donald Trump says he was just an hour away from launching strikes on Iran when Gulf states intervened and asked him to hold fire to give the regime in Tehran more time to negotiate a deal to formally end the war. Middle East correspondent Matthew Doran is in Jerusalem. He spoke to me a short time ago.
Matthew Doran: Well, good morning. Clearly there is a lot of interest in the US president's thinking here, although it is hard to say how serious these comments actually are from Donald Trump because he's promised fire and fury would rain down on Iran multiple times during this ceasefire, which is now six weeks long, and those threats have not amounted to any return to all out fighting. His timeframe here is also a little bit unclear. He's shifted from saying the strikes were only an hour away when he made this announcement to it was an hour before he was going to make a call about launching strikes. Regardless, it does show just how precarious the situation is. And we know that there's been a suggestion this has been building for some time with the president receiving briefings from key officials about the next steps in recent days. It is also an indication of the influence that the Gulf states have had here. The leaders of the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia asking Donald Trump to show restraint, arguing that Iran was showing promising signs in talks. And we do need to remember they have copped an absolute battering from Iran in retaliatory strikes, hundreds of missiles and drones over the course of the last couple of months or so. So they have a lot to lose if this all kicks off again. And there's been more drone attacks recorded in the UAE over the last 48 hours, six intercepted in that period alone. Now, Donald Trump says this is only a delay of two to three days, that strikes are still on the table. He spoke to media at the site of his White House ballroom project, hence the construction noise you're about to hear. But he was asked some questions about the situation overnight.
Donald Trump: We're all set to go. You're talking about yesterday. We were going to be striking very... It would have been happening right now. I hope we don't have to do the war, but we may have to give them another big hit. I'm not sure yet.
Melissa Clarke: So Matt, where do the negotiations actually stand right now?
Matthew Doran: Well, Mel, they do appear to still be stalled. We do know that Iran submitted another proposal through mediators Pakistan yesterday. We also learnt just before Donald Trump made these comments that Iranian state media was rattling off some of the demands that would be part of any deal Iran would agree to. They ranged from an end to the war right across the region, including in Lebanon, which is a war Iran sees as part of the broader conflict, but which the US and Israel have treated as separate. Tehran also wanting things such as the withdrawal of US forces from areas near Iran. And that's all before the two big sticking points here, the future of Iran's nuclear ambitions and control over the Strait of Hormuz. There's been a lot of speculation as to whether either side really wants to return to fighting here if it all falls over. Perhaps Israel is the only one in this region really banging the drums for a return to fighting. But there is this anxiety that with such little movement so far, anything could happen, particularly when the US president is far from predictable.
Melissa Clarke: Matthew Doran in Jerusalem there.