US president ‌Donald Trump said on Thursday that the Strait of Hormuz would be opened as soon as ‌a “great settlement” of the war in Iran was signed, an event he said he expected ​would happen within days.“We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.“The strait will officially open as soon as ​we sign, which could be soon, very soon, maybe over the weekend in Europe,” he said.Trump ⁠said he had just talked to Israel’s prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, ‌and ‌had ​also spoken with the leaders of Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and others. He said he ⁠would soon speak to ​Turkey’s president Tayyip Erdogan.The deal resolved the ​issue of Iran pursuing the development of a nuclear weapon, he said.“Most ‌importantly we have a deal that ​Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, which was the whole ⁠purpose of what we had ⁠to go through ​to get this. So it was a very big thing,” he said.The US president said he believed Iran’s supreme leader ​Mojtaba Khamenei had approved the deal, which ‌would ‌trigger the ​opening of the Strait of Hormuz ⁠and ​the lifting of ​a US blockade on ‌Iranian ports.When asked ​by a reporter at the ⁠White House ⁠whether ​Khamenei had approved the deal, Trump said: “I understand the answer is yes.”Trump described the deal as “a very strong ‌memorandum of understanding,” ⁠adding it was “a little conceptual, but it’s something ‌that’s going to get done”.Trump called off new strikes on Iran earlier on Thursday, saying “final points” of an initial peace deal had been approved and details of a signing ceremony would be announced shortly.Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that Tehran was likely to approve the ‌agreement though it ⁠has yet to give a formal response. The cancellation of strikes came hours after the president said the US military would attack ‌Iran for a third consecutive night.Since mid-March, Trump has repeatedly claimed that a deal with ​Iran to end the war is close. The ​two sides have traded strikes throughout the week, straining a ceasefire announced in April.US president Donald Trump's remarks were not immediately responded to by Iran. Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP Earlier in the day, Trump had said the US would hit Iran “very hard tonight”. He even ‌added that he wanted at some point to take Iran’s ​oil-infrastructure hub Kharg Island, after a second day of strikes by both sides in the Gulf appeared to threaten a return to ⁠all-out war.A fragile ceasefire has been in place since ⁠early April. Iranian sources and western officials ​earlier said indirect US-Iranian talks on a preliminary peace deal had intensified, while the renewed hostilities this week undermined prospects for a swift end to the conflict. Oil prices fell sharply after Trump said he had cancelled the US plans to strike Iran, while stocks extended their gains.United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres had called on ‌both sides to redouble their efforts “towards a ⁠peaceful, comprehensive and durable agreement that advances regional and international peace and security,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said. The war has killed thousands of people, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, and pushed up global oil prices since the US and Israel launched air strikes on ‌Iran on February 28th. Despite the latest hostilities, three Iranian sources and western officials said the talks had not yet dealt in detail with issues including a mechanism for the release ​of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian funds.“This war, from a military standpoint, is [at] a dead ​end,“ said one of the Iranian sources. ”The Americans could not achieve their goals by attacking Iran. There has been progress in negotiations."The war has disrupted roughly a fifth of global supply of crude ‌oil and liquefied natural gas, sending prices sharply higher. Iran ⁠has blocked traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, while the US has maintained its own blockade on Iranian ports.Fighting continued in a parallel war in Lebanon between Israel and Iran-backed Hizbullah militants.Tehran’s demands in ceasefire talks include an ​end to Israel’s attacks in Lebanon, the lifting of sanctions on Iran, the release of billions of dollars in frozen assets and recognition of its control of the strait.[ Is Donald Trump the new Jimmy Carter?Opens in new window ]Trump says Iran must end its restrictions on shipping through Hormuz. He also says any peace deal must ensure Iran cannot develop a nuclear weapon. Iran denies any such ambition. – Financial Times/Reuters