US and Iran hit pause on strikes for second day

The United States and Iran have pressed pause for a second day on what had been an escalating conflict.

Reports on Sunday said neither the US nor Iran had launched strikes for a second day in a row. The sudden period of calm after two weeks of nightly attacks on Iran by the US, and Iranian retaliation on US allies in the Gulf comes amid hopes of a return to diplomacy.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told Fox News on Sunday that President Donald Trump was “giving [the potential for] talks … a little bit of room”.

While noting that the president has said the US was “locked and loaded”, Waltz said negotiators have been engaged at every level over the past few weeks, and in particular, over the past few days.

US broadcaster CBS, quoting two regional sources, reported that the US decision to pause the bombing was made due to the arrival of an Omani delegation in Tehran.

The prospects for peace between Tehran and Washington remain hindered by lingering mistrust, however. Since the US and Israel began their war on Iran in late February, Iranian officials have been quick to note that they have been attacked by the US and Israel during periods of negotiation on several previous occasions.

Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told the Austrian broadcaster ORF on Sunday that mediators, including Qatar and Pakistan, are exchanging messages between Iran and the US. But he added that Iran’s past efforts at diplomacy have been “betrayed”.

The New York Times reported that Trump paused plans to escalate attacks due to concerns about draining the Pentagon’s diminishing stockpile of missile interceptors and other air defence munitions in the Middle East.

Iran’s army, meanwhile, said it had halted its strikes in the Gulf.

“Our strategy has essentially been retaliatory. We have also halted our retaliatory operations,” Iranian army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia said, according to the AFP news agency.

However, like the US, Iran was also sure to maintain its bullish rhetoric, with Akraminia warning that the conflict would widen further if the US continues its attacks.

Trump shared a series of AI-generated images on social media on Sunday. One portrayed US fighters bombing Iran, with the caption “Guardian Angels of the World”. Another AI-generated image showed Trump planting a US flag on an Iranian commercial vessel, with the caption “It’s our oil tanker now!”

But the US president faces growing pressure to find a way to end the war on Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, set to meet with Trump during a visit to the US on Tuesday, warned during a television interview with Fox News on Sunday that a resumption of attacks on Israel by Iran or its regional allies would be a “terrible mistake” and would elicit a “very, very forceful response”.

Al Jazeera’s Rosalind Jordan, meanwhile, reported that “the most recent poll conducted by Ipsos and The Washington Post in the US indicates that just ۲۹ percent of those surveyed believe that the president is handling the war with Iran appropriately, or approve of the war overall, while ۲۸ percent say the war was worth it”.

“There are a lot of questions about the status of the conflict between Iran and the US, but certainly, there is growing pressure on the US president to basically try to figure out: what is the exit strategy?” she added.

Tensions in Strait of Hormuz continue

Regarding the Omani delegation, Baghaei said the talks about managing traffic in the Strait of Hormuz – the focus of the recent outbreak of hostilities – were “useful, and progress was made”.

“Technical and political consultations” are ongoing, he added.

However, incidents in the waterway, a key export route for oil and natural gas from the region, continued, maintaining the risk of escalation.

The US military’s Central Command said on Sunday that its naval blockade of Iran “remains in full effect”.

It noted that as of Saturday, it had redirected ۱۲ commercial vessels, disabled two that had not complied with directions and boarded two “to ensure total compliance”.

Iranian media reported that the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stopped six vessels from trying to transit the strait over the previous ۲۴ hours by firing warning shots.

Iranian media also reported that an oil tanker had exploded after hitting a mine in the strait. The ship struck a mine after leaving the Iranian-approved route, according to the Tasnim news agency.

Control over the Strait of Hormuz is a point of contention between the US and Iran. Iran says it controls passage through the waterway under a memorandum of understanding signed by Washington and Tehran in June, which established a ۶۰-day period for the final terms of a deal to be negotiated.

The US says Iran does not control the strait and has tried to create a secondary route for vessels to transit the waterway.