US President Donald Trump has claimed an initial agreement aimed at ending the war with Iran is close after posting that he had cancelled strikes on the country.
“We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran,” he told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei told state TV that reports of an agreement were “speculative” and “nothing has been finalised”.
Trump has made similar claims in the past that the two countries are close to reaching a deal to end the conflict. Hours before the announcement, Trump had declared he would hit Iran “very hard”.
The US and Israel launched wide-ranging strikes on Iran on 28 February. Iran responded by attacking Israel and US-allied states in the Gulf, and effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz – a key shipping route for the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas.