Donald Trump said on Saturday night that the US would hold off on any new strikes on Iran provided a deal to end the months-long conflict is quickly reached – marking the president’s latest climbdown from extravagant threats to hit the Tehran regime hard.
The Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman called Trump on Saturday to express concerns about his strike plans, it was reported. Trump’s reversal also came after Iran threatened to retaliate decisively against its neighbours in the event of US strikes, while Kuwait reported being hit by Iranian drones on Saturday and two ships were attacked off Oman in the strait of Hormuz.
One source described as having knowledge of the Trump-Mohammed call told Axios that the Saudi crown prince had “urged Trump to de-escalate and refrain from launching the strikes”.
3 months ago he didn’t have to. Now he is sitting a grey area by trying to claim the end of the crease fire resets the clock on going to Congress (at least that is my guess, I have not seen anything official). However that clock is still counting and while it isn’t clear when to start it is clear that eventually he will have to go to Congress of he can’t restart it somehow
As far as I understand it, three months ago was the deadline for him to ask permission. The whole “its a whole new war” is the excuse to reset that clock.