The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he had called off new military strikes on Iran, claiming a breakthrough in talks to end the war just hours after the American leader threatened to escalate the conflict by seizing control of Iran's oil industry. An Associated Press dispatch to The Globe says Mr. Trump has said multiple times in recent weeks that the warring parties have been on the cusp of a deal without anything coming to fruition. On Thursday afternoon, Mr. Trump said, "We just made a great settlement of the war with Iran," expecting to finalize an agreement to extend a ceasefire from April in the coming days. The announcement came after two days of back-and-forth attacks between the U.S. and Iran that had pushed the Middle East closer to the resumption of a full-scale war. Mr. Trump threatened further escalation, saying the U.S. would hit Iran "VERY HARD TONIGHT" and take "total control" of its oil and gas industries. Later, he claimed that key negotiation points had been approved by the highest levels of Iranian leadership. A spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry said that mediators were active and that nothing had been finalized to end the conflict.