Donald Trump’s decision to back down from his threat to destroy Iran’s power infrastructure came after US allies and Gulf countries privately warned the president of the dangers of following through with his threat, according to people familiar with the matter.

The US president said Monday he was giving Iran a five-day reprieve from his threatened action, pointing to new talks with Tehran he believed could broker a deal that would resolve the conflict.

But Trump’s decision came after some allies cautioned that the war was quickly becoming a disaster. Regional partners told the US that permanent damage to Iranian infrastructure would almost inevitably result in a failed state after the conflict ended, according to the people, who described private conversations on the condition of anonymity.

Pulling back also dovetailed with another interest of the president’s: calming markets rattled by his threats and the ongoing conflict. Trump’s decision, which was announced shortly before US trading began, was designed in part to address those concerns, according to the people, and immediately spurred a sharp fall in Brent crude and a rebound in the S…P 500 and US Treasuries.

“Trump needed some way to climb down from a threat that would surely have started a new round of escalation, this time crossing a new threshold by targeting civilian energy infrastructure, which would likely constitute a war crime,” said Dana Stroul, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East. “It is surely no coincidence that the announcement of a five-day pause and talks came right before markets opened in the United States on Monday morning.”

The picture that has emerged is one where Iran’s regional neighbors are, for now, seeing the latest burst of diplomacy as a five-day reprieve. One senior diplomat said Egypt, Turkey and Pakistan are passing messages between the US and Iran. While officials are acting as go-betweens for the two countries, it’s not at all clear the extent to which those negotiations are happening directly.

Trump, speaking on Monday during travel to Tennessee, said representatives from Iran reached out to start the talks because they were eager to make a deal after his threat to strike energy facilities.

“We’ve been negotiating for a long time, and this time, they mean business, and it’s only because of the great job that our military did,” Trump said.

The Trump administration appears to believe that Iran will readily agree to talks if the US signals it’s ready to negotiate, but allies worry that it may not be that easy, according to a person familiar with the matter.