President Donald Trump has paused attacks on Iran for the third night in a row to give diplomacy more time, the US ambassador to the UN said.
The report indicates that president Donald Trump has paused attacks on Iran for the third night in a row to give diplomacy more time, the US ambassador to the UN said.
It further notes that speaking to Fox News on Sunday, ambassador Mike Waltz stated the president was “giving talks some space, he’s giving it a little bit of room”.
An Iranian army spokesperson stated on Sunday that Tehran had halted “retaliatory” attacks in the region in response. The pause follows nearly two weeks of daily US strikes and tit-for-tat attacks, effectively unravelling the ceasefire struck in June.
Oil prices have dropped sharply in the wake of the pause,falling below $90 per barrel on Monday morning after hitting $100 for the first time since May last week.
Asked whether Trump had decided against escalation for now, Waltz told NBC: “I wouldn’t go that far at all. The president is keeping all options on the table.”
Waltz also rejected reports in the New York Times that administration officials had warned expanding hostilities could dangerously drain a diminished stockpile of air defence munitions.
“The US military… has everything that it needs to conduct this campaign as effectively as it needs to be,” he said.
Speaking to CBS, he added: “We’ll see over the next coming days. But make no mistake, additional military assets are moving into the region.”
“The regime should believe the president when he says they’re locked and loaded, and where all options are on the table.”
As of Monday, Trump had not spoken publicly on the latest developments, but earlier posted computer-generated images on his Truth Social account that depicted US military planes bombing Iranian ships and Kharg island.
The pause follows 13 consecutive nights of US strikes on Iran, which Washington stated aimed to “degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.”
Meanwhile, Iran and Oman held several rounds of technical talks in Tehran on Friday and Saturday to discuss management of the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei.
Disputes over control of the strait reignited US-Iran tensions earlier this month and it remains a major block to permanently ending the war.
Iran and the US signed a memorandum of understanding in June to halt military operations and reopen the strait, as well as to reach an agreement to end the war over the following 60 days.
