Trump claims 'great' deal with Iran, signing expected in Europe

US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a "great settlement" with Iran to end the Middle East war, saying he expected a deal to be signed in Europe in the coming days.

Trump's claim came just hours after he promised fresh strikes against Iran, before saying that he was calling them off as a deal approached. There was no confirmation from Iran.

"We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

Trump said that they would "subject to finalization of documents, which should get done over the next few days, probably have a signing, maybe in Europe. It's a great thing."

Trump said the deal meant that "Iran will never have a nuclear weapon" but gave no details of how that would happen.

"It was a big, very big thing, but we have a signing soon, and the documents are in pretty final shape, so we'll see," said Trump, adding that he had spoken to regional leaders including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump added that the Strait of Hormuz -- a crucial waterway for the flow of oil which Iran claims to have shuttered -- would also open once the deal was signed.

"The whole Middle East is happy, and long beyond the Middle East," said Trump, whose war has caused global oil prices to spike, with inflation hitting a three-year high in the United States.

The United States and Israel launched the war on Iran on February 28. A fragile ceasefire was agreed in April but both sides have traded fire in recent days.

An increasingly frustrated Trump has for weeks veered between proclaiming a deal and threatening Iran, accusing Tehran as recently as Wednesday of "playing us for suckers."

On Thursday morning, Trump vowed "very hard" strikes on Iran that evening and promised to take the country's key oil infrastructure in what would have been a major escalation.

"At some point in the not too distant future, we will be taking Kharg Island, and other oil infrastructure points, and assume total control of their Oil and Gas Markets, much like we have with Venezuela," he said on social media.

Kharg Island is at the heart of Iran's oil export industry, a lynchpin of the country's battered economy. It sits off Iran's Gulf coast, hundreds of kilometers northwest of the narrow, strategic Strait of Hormuz.

But a few hours later he backtracked, saying in another social media post that "final points have been... approved by all parties involved."

"Based on the fact that discussions with the Islamic Republic of Iran have been brought to the highest level of Iranian leadership and approved, I have... cancelled the scheduled strikes and bombings against Iran this evening," Trump said. 

Agence France-Presse