Donald Trump has announced he has postponed strikes against Iranian energy sites for five days, after threatening to attack if the Islamic Republic did not allow the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours.

It came after Washington and Tehran held talks on the 'complete and total resolution of hostilities' in the Middle East, with the US President announcing the war could end within a week if upcoming negotiations go well. 

The U-turn followed Iran's threat to 'irreversibly destroy' essential infrastructure and energy facilities across the Middle East on Sunday, in an alarming escalation of rhetoric.

Perhaps the US President changed his mind due to the increasing aggression of Tehran, with the regime having deployed long-range missiles for the first time in the conflict, targetting Diego Garcia, the joint US-UK military base in the Chagos Islands, with two ballistic missiles.

Meanwhile, the continued shutdown of the Persian Gulf channel has triggered the world's worst oil crisis since the 1970s and sent European gas prices soaring by as much as 35 per cent last week.

But Iran still has several military options available to further intensify hostilities, including the possibility of targetting major European cities such as London and Paris with intermediate-range missiles, according to experts.

The regime could also trigger a global energy crisis by destroying the Middle East's biggest oil factories, after the country's state media published infographics of power plants in the region that its forces could target.

One infographic was titled 'Say goodbye to electricity!' and showed potential targets in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait, as other maps showed Orot Rabin and Rutenberg, Israel's two largest power plants.

Tehran could topple the water supply for millions of people in the Middle East and unleash a humanitarian catastrophe, if it follows through on earlier threats to pummel the region's desalination plants.

The military has threatened to deploy 'naval mines' in the Gulf if the US and Israel were to attack any of its coasts or islands, with reports indicating Iran has already begun laying mines in the strait.

And while Tehran has successfully strangled the Persian Gulf, it might go further still in its attacks on the global economy by enlisting its terrorist Houthi allies to shutdown shipping in the Red Sea. 

Moreover, after a series of violent incidents across the US and Europe, speculation is building that the regime is enlisting its international sleeper cells to terrorise the world as an extension of its military campaign.