Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt said Saudi Arabia’s crown prince was responsible for pulling President Trump back from a planned major escalation against Iran, though he cautioned that Tehran had shown no sign of yielding on its core demands over the Strait of Hormuz.
“It was evidently a forceful intervention by Saudi Arabia that took Trump off his plans for an immediate and dramatic escalation of his war,” Bildt wrote on X. “Now we are in a new phase of diplomacy, but without any sign of Iran willing to give ground on its core demands on Hormuz.”
Bildt was responding to an official statement from the Saudi Press Agency confirming that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had spoken by phone with Trump. “HRH the Crown Prince stressed the need to prioritize dialogue to reduce escalation and the importance of making every possible effort to achieve calm that paves the way for diplomatic solutions, preserves the region’s security and stability, and prevents a wider conflict whose repercussions would affect regional and international security and stability,” the Saudi statement said, adding that the two leaders also discussed bilateral cooperation.
Hours after the call, Trump announced on Truth Social that he had called off a planned large-scale strike on Iran. “The U.S.A. is locked and loaded and ready to go against the Islamic Republic of Iran, at levels of Military Terror, Strength, and Power not seen since World War II,” Trump wrote. “Despite this, we have just been asked by Iran, and other Middle Eastern Countries, to hold off any attack in that the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to. This would include the Immediate, Complete, and Total OPENING OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT, and an end to Iran’s nuclear threat. Based on this request, I have agreed, for the future benefit of the WORLD and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran, to cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL.” Trump said Israel had joined the commitment to pause.
American officials had told multiple outlets Friday that the U.S. was preparing to resume large-scale strikes on Iran as soon as that weekend. CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton said Saudi Arabia carried unusual weight in persuading Trump to hold off, given the kingdom’s economic exposure to continued closure of the strait. “They’re economically at risk here,” Leighton said, noting Saudi oil and other exports flow through the waterway. “This is an area where the United States really is dependent, to a large degree, on Saudi diplomacy.”
Iran directly and repeatedly disputed Trump’s characterization of the call within hours of his post. Iran’s Mehr News Agency, citing military officials, called Trump’s claim that Tehran had requested a pause “nothing but a new lie,” saying Iranian armed forces remained “on high alert and ready for any eventuality.” Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency separately quoted a member of Tehran’s negotiating team saying, “There is no agreement on reopening the Strait of Hormuz. As long as the United States continues its hostile actions, the strait will remain closed,” adding that any vessel passage would require authorization from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy specifically.
The pattern of dueling claims is not new to this round of diplomacy. Trump has announced apparent breakthroughs with Iran on at least two prior occasions during the war that Iranian officials subsequently denied in similar terms, including an April 1 claim that Iran’s president had requested a ceasefire, which a spokesperson for Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s office rejected as “delusions and lies,” and an April 7 claim, credited at the time to Pakistani mediation, that Iran had agreed to reopen Hormuz in exchange for a two-week pause.
The current dispute follows the collapse of a 60-day ceasefire the U.S. and Iran reached in mid-June, which broke down after Iran struck a Cyprus-flagged vessel in the Strait of Hormuz the following month, triggering nearly two weeks of retaliatory U.S. strikes.
The Saudi intervention came the same week Israel said it was assessing whether Iran would fire missiles at Israeli territory even if Tehran did not immediately join a broader new U.S. offensive, and after the State Department urged American citizens to consider leaving the Middle East given escalating regional tensions.
Bildt, who served as Sweden’s prime minister from 1991 to 1994 and foreign minister from 2006 to 2014, currently co-chairs the European Council on Foreign Relations and has frequently offered public commentary on the war’s diplomatic twists throughout the conflict.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s brother, Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman, had separately been in Washington earlier in the week for discussions with U.S. officials, part of what regional reporting described as a broader push by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and Pakistan to press for restraint ahead of the threatened weekend strikes.
Neither the White House nor Israeli officials had publicly confirmed the specific terms Trump described as of Bildt’s post, and Israel had not issued its own statement addressing Trump’s claim that it had joined the pause commitment.