President Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday that he was just “an hour away” from ordering another wave of attacks against Iran this week when Gulf allies convinced him to hold off.

Asked during a press conference how close he was to striking Iran this week, Trump responded, “I was an hour away. We were all set to go. You’re talking about yesterday? We were going to be striking very– it would have been happening right now. Yeah, it was all done. The boats, the ships were all loaded. They were all loaded to the brim and we were all set to start.”

Pressed on how long in advance his allies in the Gulf had been aware of the impending attack, the president said, “They knew I was getting ready to attack. I didn’t tell them. I never tell anybody when. I never tell anybody when, but they knew that we were very close.”

“I would say I was an hour away from making the decision to go today, and we would probably not be talking about a beautiful ballroom today, we’d be talking about that,” he continued. “And no, I had made the decision, so they called up, they had heard I made the decision, and they said, ‘Sir, could you give us a couple more days because we think they’re being reasonable.'”

Trump announced in a Truth Social post on Monday that he had cancelled a planned attack against Iran at the last minute after Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates asked him to hold off.

“I have been asked by the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, and the President of the United Arab Emirates, Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to hold off on our planned Military attack of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which was scheduled for tomorrow,” he wrote, “in that serious negotiations are now taking place, and that, in their opinion, as Great Leaders and Allies, a Deal will be made, which will be very acceptable to the United States of America, as well as all Countries in the Middle East, and beyond.”

He continued, “Based on my respect for the above mentioned Leaders, I have instructed Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, The Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Daniel Caine, and The United States Military, that we will NOT be doing the scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow, but have further instructed them to be prepared to go forward with a full, large scale assault of Iran, on a moment’s notice, in the event that an acceptable Deal is not reached.”

Watch above via CNN.

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