US President Donald Trump announced he had called off planned military strikes against Iran, saying the "perimeters" of a broader diplomatic agreement had been reached, even as Iranian officials firmly rejected the central claim behind his announcement.

In a weekend post on Truth Social, Trump said Washington was "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." Despite that posture, he said Iran and other Middle Eastern countries had asked the United States to hold off on any attack because the outlines of a deal had been agreed.

According to Trump, the proposed arrangement would include the immediate and complete opening of the Hormuz Strait and an end to Iran's nuclear threat. He said he had agreed to cancel the strikes on that basis, contingent on a deal being finalized rapidly. Israel, he added, had joined the commitment.

Iran swiftly disputed Trump's account. The semi-official Mehr news agency rejected the narrative outright, calling it "a new lie." Iran's acting Defence Minister, Majid Ibn al-Reza, said Tehran regards every threat from its adversaries as real and credible, even those forming part of psychological warfare, and stressed that Iran would neither be caught off guard nor remain passive.

The exchange follows reports in US media that Washington and Israel had been preparing one of the most intense bombing campaigns to date against Iranian energy infrastructure. According to sources cited by CBS News, the BBC's US news partner, the plan was discussed at Trump's cabinet meeting on Friday. The US government has also urged Americans in the Middle East to remain alert and prepared to leave the region should tensions escalate further.

The conflicting accounts leave the actual state of negotiations uncertain. It is not the first time Trump has issued dire warnings toward Iran only to later frame the situation as one where diplomacy is being given room to work. During his first term, Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and reimposed sweeping economic sanctions on Tehran. Since that withdrawal, Iran has progressively exceeded enrichment limits set under the original deal, accumulating stockpiles of uranium enriched to near-weapons-grade levels, according to periodic reports by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

On the market implications, a confirmed stand-down from strikes targeting Iranian energy infrastructure would alleviate one of the more acute supply-side risks currently weighing on oil markets, particularly given the scale of the reported bombing campaign under consideration. Any de-escalation involving the Hormuz Strait carries outsized significance because roughly a fifth of global daily oil consumption transits the waterway, making it one of the most strategically critical energy chokepoints in the world. Traders would likely interpret guaranteed passage through the strait as supportive for freight flows while reducing the geopolitical risk premium embedded in prices.

However, Iran's official denial of the premise that it requested a pause introduces meaningful uncertainty. Markets may be reluctant to fully discount risk until both sides publicly confirm the same sequence of events. Sentiment is expected to remain volatile, with any further US military signalling or shifts in Iranian rhetoric capable of rapidly reversing any market movement.