US Pauses Iran Bombing Campaign to Allow Diplomatic Talks Space

U.S. Pauses Bombing Campaign as Diplomatic Talks Advance

The U.S. military halted its bombing raids on Iran over the weekend after 13 consecutive days of heavy strikes. President Donald Trump wants to give ongoing talks with Iran “some space” as he considers whether to escalate attacks, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Sunday. Mike Waltz’s comments came as the U.S. military paused its bombing raids on Iran over the weekend after 13 consecutive days of heavy strikes and warnings by Trump of an even more aggressive bombing campaign.

The US has paused strikes on Iran for a second night as diplomatic negotiations to avoid a return to all-out war continued on Sunday. Donald Trump is said to be weighing up diplomatic and military options in the nearly five-month-old conflict, with Benjamin Netanyahu expected to visit the White House on Tuesday. The Israeli prime minister is a vocal critic of Washington’s negotiations with Iranian leaders. Netanyahu is under considerable political pressure to show that his military campaigns against Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon have yielded results before elections scheduled for October.

Tehran said on Sunday it would pause what it called “retaliatory” attacks against US allies in the region. These [US] attacks continued until two nights ago, but over the past two nights the Americans have stopped their attacks, said the army spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia. Our strategy has essentially been retaliatory, we have also halted our retaliatory operations. Senior officials in the Trump administration are reported to have warned the president about dwindling munitions.

The US military says its naval blockade against Iran remains in full effect but did not explain why it halted a streak of 13 nights of escalating strikes. The US military said on Saturday, July 25, that its naval blockade against Iran remains in full effect but did not explain why it halted a streak of 13 nights of escalating strikes. Asked about the pause, a senior official in President Donald Trump’s administration said Trump has always been clear that his preference is diplomacy, but he has shown Iran what will happen if they fail to come to the table in a serious way. There were also no reports on Saturday of attacks from Iran on neighboring countries, like those that have been taking place daily in response to the US attacks. Trump has decided, for now, to back away from earlier plans to ramp up attacks on Iran.

Internal Administration Debates and Dwindling Munitions Stockpiles

Vice President JD Vance and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine both raised concerns about escalating the war in Iran as President Donald Trump weighed the possibility during a White House meeting on Friday, a source familiar with the matter and a US official told CNN. On Friday night, the US appeared to pause its bombing campaign on Iran after nearly two weeks of consecutive nights of strikes. Operations are “on a hold,” a Department of Defense source told CNN on Saturday. On Friday, Caine specifically raised concerns about the US munitions stockpile and other potential negative implications, according to the sources. One of the sources said that Caine told Trump and the US military they could carry out the options available to him and be successful but then warned of the possible implications. The stockpile concern was one of many raised to Trump during the meeting, both sources said. The potential for massive civilian casualties inside Iran if the US resumed major combat operations was also raised, a person familiar with the matter said.

US Pauses Iran Bombing Campaign to Resume Diplomatic Talks

Former Trump envoy Morgan Ortagus warned Wednesday that Iran may be using ongoing nuclear negotiations to “buy time” as President Donald Trump pauses planned military strikes and extends a fragile ceasefire to allow more room for diplomacy. Speaking with Fox News Digital at the Middle East Forum’s 2026 policy conference in Washington, Ortagus said Iran has long used drawn-out negotiations as a strategy to delay pressure while preserving leverage. It’s the tactic of the regime to stall, to draw negotiations, to buy time, Ortagus said of Iran. I would encourage the president not to fall into the trap that the Iranians like to do … which is to drag things out to buy time. Trump recently paused planned strikes and extended diplomatic talks with Iran following pressure from Gulf allies seeking more time for negotiations, even as the administration continues pressing Iran over its nuclear program and regional proxy network.

Regional Spillovers and Red Sea Fronts

Most Gulf stock markets closed lower on Sunday, a day after Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis attacked Saudi oil installations at two Red Sea ports and Saudi-backed forces bombed the Houthis, extending the war in the Gulf to a second front. Amid a weekend pause in U.S. strikes against Iran, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations told Fox News on Sunday that President Donald Trump was giving Iran talks “some space”. Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index lost 0.3%, dragged down by a 4% slide in Banque Saudi Fransi as the lender traded ex-dividend, or without the right to receive the next scheduled dividend payment. Among other losers, oil major Saudi Aramco retreated 0.9%. On Sunday, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that an oil tanker exploded in the strategic Strait of Hormuz after colliding with a naval mine.

American Special Operations forces are preparing for what experts describe as potentially the most sophisticated operation in military history — a ground raid to seize Iran’s remaining enriched uranium from heavily fortified nuclear sites, according to a report by The New York Post. A source familiar with military planning told the Post that the complex mission would require thousands of ground troops to storm facilities such as Isfahan, Fordow, and Natanz’s Pickaxe Mountain. Forces would need to navigate booby traps, employ construction crews to dig out destroyed entrances, secure large defensive perimeters, and maintain a blocking force against Iranian counterattacks while a smaller special operations team conducts the actual retrieval of the material. I hate to say it, but I think the most likely way to get rid of Iran’s nuclear material, at least what they currently have, is a military operation because the negotiations aren’t going anywhere fast, said Joseph Rodgers, deputy director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

International Reactions and Washington’s Next Steps

Iran and the United States are continuing mediated talks aimed at ending the conflict, with Iranian media reporting that both sides are exchanging messages and draft proposals to establish a formal framework for an agreement. Al Jazeera’s correspondent Almigdad Alruhaid reported from Tehran that Pakistani officials were engaged in intense mediation activity between the two countries. The diplomatic push comes as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there were some good signs for a possible breakthrough. However, US President Donald Trump also warned Washington could take “very drastic” action if Iran refuses to give up its uranium stockpiles.

Iran has accused the US and Israel of committing a “war crime” by bombing the Pasteur Institute of Iran early in the war, after The Lancet journal warned that the attack severely damaged a key pillar of medical research. As diplomatic channels remain active, Iranian and U.S. negotiators continue assessing whether interim agreements can prevent a return to all-out military engagement, leaving the durability of the current strike pause entirely dependent on ongoing talks.