THE United States and Iran edged closer to a peace deal yesterday, after US President Donald Trump said that negotiations with Tehran were set to resume today.

He said on Sunday that he had put a massive attack on Iran on hold because a deal with the Islamic Republic was close.

Claiming that a plan was in place for the US to launch “the biggest attack since World War II” on Iran, he said he had halted it to give diplomacy a chance.

“Obviously, they don’t want to be attacked. They knew the extent of the attack because they saw it forming,” Trump told reporters on board Air Force One.

“Now what we’re doing is talking to them in the form of a negotiation.”

But the Fars News Agency reported that Pakistan has rejected Mr Trump’s assertion that a bilateral meeting between the US and Iran was about to take place as no specific date or location had been agreed.

The US president also claimed, without evidence, that Iran had joined Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in asking him to postpone the attack.

He said: “When the allies asked to call it off, you’ve got to sort of say: ‘Well, let’s see.’ And the reason they ask is they think there’s a deal.

“There’s a deal on [the Strait of] Hormuz and then there will be a deal on the nuclear.”

Iran has denied appealing for the strikes to be called off.

Mr Trump’s announcement came hours after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi held a detailed telephone conversation with his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud and Pakistani army commander Asim Munir.

Mr Munir has played the leading role in mediation between the warring sides.

Mr Araghchi said in a Telegram post that the three had discussed “initiatives aimed at maintaining and strengthening security and stability” in the region.

Earlier on Sunday, Iran’s IRNA news agency reported that negotiations between Tehran and Oman over the Strait of Hormuz were in their final stages, but no deal had yet been finalised.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the negotiations focused on agreeing to a new route through the strait, adding that this had “no link to the Strait of Hormuz being opened or closed. That is a separate discussion.”