While the immediate operation is paused, the President has kept the U.S. military on high alert, warning that the window for a peaceful resolution is narrowing.

“I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, The Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Daniel Caine, and The United States Military, that we will NOT be doing the scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow, but have further instructed them to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

The President emphasized that his primary objective remains unchanged, stating: “This Deal will include, importantly, NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS FOR IRAN.”

Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that while U.S. officials have previously believed a deal was near, this instance feels “a little bit different.”

“It’s a very positive development, but we’ll see whether or not it amounts to anything,” he said, noting that there have been “periods of time” in which US officials thought a deal was close, “but this is a little bit different.”

The decision to stand down came after Trump grew frustrated with the deadlock in negotiations.

Trump explained that regional allies requested the delay to facilitate ongoing diplomatic talks.

“We were getting ready to do a very major attack tomorrow. I put it off for a little while — hopefully, maybe, forever — but possibly for a little while, because we’ve had very big discussions with Iran, and we’ll see what they amount to,” Trump said.

“I was asked by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, and some others if we could put it off for two or three days, a short period of time, because they think that they are getting very close to making a deal.”

The President added to CNN’s Kristen Holmes: “I was called by these three countries, plus others, and they’re dealing directly with our people, and right now Iran, and there seems to be a very good chance that they can work something out. If we can do that without bombing the hell out of them, I’d be very happy.”

Trump warned Iran on Sunday that the “clock is ticking” to finalize an accord, or else face a resumption of the military campaign that has been on hold since last month.