The United States and Iran have paused military strikes for a third consecutive night as both sides consider giving peace talks another opportunity, although Washington has warned that additional military forces are moving into the region.
The pause followed 13 consecutive nights of US strikes on Iran. The US military said the attacks were aimed at reducing Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important routes for oil and gas shipments.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said President Donald Trump was giving diplomacy more time.
“He is giving diplomacy a chance,” Waltz told CBS’s Face the Nation, while warning that the United States remained prepared to take further military action if necessary.
Waltz said additional US military assets were being deployed to the region and urged the Iranian government to take Trump’s warnings seriously.
Iran also announced on Sunday that it had halted retaliatory operations in the region.
The Strait of Hormuz has remained at the centre of the dispute between Washington and Tehran. The waterway was a key element of a memorandum of understanding reached by the two countries in June.
Under the provisional agreement, Iran was required to reopen the strait and reaffirm that it would not acquire or develop nuclear weapons. The United States, in return, agreed to lift its naval blockade of Iran and remove sanctions on Tehran. The deal gave the two sides 60 days to negotiate a permanent agreement.
The arrangement came under pressure after Iranian attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. The incidents led to renewed US strikes and the reintroduction of a naval blockade around Iranian ports, putting diplomatic efforts at risk.
US Central Command said that by Saturday, American forces had redirected 12 commercial vessels attempting to bypass the blockade. Two vessels that did not comply with orders were disabled, while another two were boarded to ensure compliance.
Iran responded to US military operations with attacks on American military facilities across the Middle East, including bases and installations in Kuwait, Bahrain, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Tehran is also facing a separate diplomatic dispute with Ukraine after Kyiv said it had struck an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea on Saturday. Ukraine claimed the ship was being used to transport military cargo between Iran and Russia.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said the attack had killed a sailor and warned that the incident could not go unanswered.
Ebrahim Azizi, head of Iran’s parliamentary national security commission, also warned that attacks on Iran would carry consequences.
The latest pause in US-Iran hostilities has created a narrow opportunity for negotiations, but the movement of additional US forces and threats from both sides continue to underline the fragility of the situation.
