President Donald Trump’s decision to open a two-week negotiating window before deciding on striking Iran sets off an urgent effort to restart talks that had been deadlocked when Israel began its bombing campaign last week.

David Petraeus, the retired general who led the CIA and US Central Command, said the decision to wait two weeks was a “pretty good call”. It would give more time for a second US aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz, to move from the Indo-Pacific region to the Middle East, he said.