DUBAI/WASHINGTON – Iran will halt its own attacks as long as the United States maintains its latest pause on air strikes, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on July 26, after President Donald Trump abruptly called off his two-week-old bombing campaign.
After 13 nights of intensifying US air strikes on Iran, the Pentagon abruptly suspended the campaign late on July 24, with no US attacks reported on either July 25 or July 26.
Iran, which had been following each night of US attacks with its own strikes on neighbouring countries that host US bases, has also so far held fire for two days.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told Fox News on July 26 that Trump had decided to pause US attacks to allow more time for diplomacy.
“He’s giving talks some space, he’s giving it a little bit of room,” Waltz said, without providing further details.
The senior Iranian source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters: “Iran’s position remains ‘attack for attack’: if the attacks stop, Iran will also halt its operations. That message has already been conveyed to the United States.”
The source added: “However, Iran is prepared to mount a broad response should the US launch another attack.”
Asked about the pause, a senior official in Trump’s administration said on July 25 that the president “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.”
The senior Iranian source said Tehran did not hold much hope that Trump’s decision to pause strikes represented a major shift in the US negotiating position.
“There is more scepticism than optimism about the halt in attacks. The prevailing view is that the pause is tactical rather than genuine. Iran has accumulated enough bitter experience with what it sees as US deception,” the source said.
Trump advisers raised concerns about missile defence stocks
US forces had been striking Iran nightly in what Washington said was retaliation for Iranian attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran says it aims to retain control of the strait, the world’s most important energy shipping route.
The two-week-long US military campaign effectively torpedoed June’s interim agreement aimed at ending the war that the United States and Israel launched in February.
The New York Times and CNN both reported that Trump had backed off plans to escalate the war with even bigger military options after concerns were raised on July 24 by some of his advisers, including over whether US missile defence stocks were running low from protecting US bases in the region.
CNN and the Times both identified Pentagon Chief of Staff Dan Caine as having raised such concerns. CNN said Vice-President J.D. Vance also had expressed reservations.
News site Axios reported that Trump had been receiving plans for strikes on Iran from the Pentagon every afternoon for two weeks and signing off on them each night, until July 24 when the latest plan was presented to him and he decided not to go ahead.
Trump’s decision to pause strikes has come at a turning point in the war, with both sides testing the boundaries of escalation that they set before a ceasefire ended major fighting in April and the interim agreement reopened Hormuz in June.
US forces have already struck bridges and tunnels in southern Iran, prompting Iran to strike water desalination plants that nearby Gulf Arab states rely on to make their desert cities habitable.
Over the past week, Iran’s Houthi allies in Yemen have announced a blockade on Saudi oil in the Red Sea, potentially shutting a second major chokepoint for energy shipping.
That pushed the benchmark Brent crude price above US$100 (S$129) for the first time since May. On July 25, the Houthis fired on Saudi Red Sea oil targets for the first time in years. REUTERS
