Iran will halt attacks as long as US maintains pause, Iranian source says after Trump calls off strikes
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- Iran will halt its own attacks as long as the US maintains its pause, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Sunday, after the Pentagon abruptly suspended a 13-night US bombing campaign late Friday with no strikes reported Saturday or Sunday.
- Iran had been responding nightly with strikes on neighboring countries that host US bases, and US forces had struck bridges and tunnels in southern Iran while Iran retaliated by hitting water desalination plants Gulf Arab states rely on.
- US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz told Fox News Trump paused strikes to give 'diplomacy some space,' but a senior Iranian source told Reuters Tehran views the halt as 'tactical rather than genuine' and is prepared to mount a 'broad response' if the US strikes again.
- The New York Times and CNN reported Trump backed off plans to escalate after Pentagon Chief of Staff Dan Caine and VP JD Vance raised concerns that US missile defense stocks were running low from protecting regional bases; Axios reported Trump had been signing off on daily strike plans until Friday.
- Iran's Houthi allies in Yemen announced a blockade on Saudi oil in the Red Sea and fired on Saudi targets Saturday for the first time in years, pushing Brent crude above US$100 per barrel for the first time since May and threatening a second major energy chokepoint alongside the Strait of Hormuz.
- The two-week US campaign effectively torpedoed last month's interim agreement that had reopened the Strait of Hormuz in June after a February-launched war the US and Israel started.
Why it matters: The pause rests on shaky ground: an Iranian source calls it 'tactical rather than genuine,' and Trump's own advisers reportedly warned US missile defense stocks were running low from protecting regional bases. The Houthi blockade of Saudi Red Sea oil now threatens a second energy chokepoint alongside the Strait of Hormuz, with Brent already above $100 per barrel and no firm diplomatic off-ramp in sight.
