The president says Iranian officials and regional countries requested time to negotiate, though Tehran denies making any such appeal. President Donald Trump announced the cancellation of planned US military strikes against Iran on August 1, saying the decision came after requests from Iranian officials and other countries in the region to allow space for negotiations. Iran’s Mehr news agency flatly denied that Iranian officials had requested a pause in US strikes. The agency characterized Trump’s statements and the broader US posture as “cognitive warfare,” a term Iranian officials have used repeatedly to describe what they view as American psychological pressure campaigns. The conflict between the US, Israel, and Iran escalated dramatically on February 28, 2026, when large-scale US and Israeli strikes hit Iranian targets.