President Donald Trump spoke with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince on Saturday, according to four people familiar with the matter and a regional source.
Prince Mohammed bin Salman reinforced Saudi Arabia’s desire for de-escalation during the call and raised concerns about plans for potential strikes on Iran, multiple people familiar with the matter said.
Officials from mediating nations, including Qatar and Pakistan, have been urgently working to stave off a new escalation in the conflict, fielding calls with officials from Iran and the United States, including Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, according to three people familiar with the matter.
An immediate goal has been to work out an arrangement between Iran and Oman to allow commercial traffic to resume flowing through the Strait of Hormuz.
CNN previously reported that the US was planning fresh strikes on Iran as soon as this weekend, citing two officials familiar with the plans.
“We will be hitting them very hard,” Trump said at a Cabinet meeting Friday. “At some point, they’re going to say, ‘We just can’t take it anymore.’”
Earlier in the week, US and Saudi fighter aircraft struck multiple sites in Iraq after drones were launched from Iranian-backed militias there toward Saudi Arabia.
