Iranian official links attack suspension to pause in US strikes
Washington’s two-day suspension has created room for diplomacy, but Tehran remains wary after US advisers raised concerns over targets and munitions.
- A senior Iranian official stated that Iran's suspension of attacks is conditional on the United States also ceasing its strikes, describing the policy as "attack for attack."
- The lull in hostilities followed the Pentagon's decision to suspend a 13-night air strike campaign against Iran.
- US military advisers reportedly warned that pre-selected targets were largely exhausted and that continuing the campaign risked depleting munitions stocks.
- While a US ambassador publicly framed the pause as a move to allow for diplomacy, the Iranian source expressed skepticism, viewing it as a tactical move rather than a genuine one.
Sunday marked the second consecutive day without reported attacks by either Washington or Tehran.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters on July 26 that Iran would continue to hold fire only if the United States did likewise.
Speaking anonymously, the official called Tehran’s policy “attack for attack” and said Washington had already received that message.
The lull followed 13 nights of escalating US air strikes.
The Pentagon suspended the campaign late on Friday, while Iran stopped the strikes it had launched against neighbouring countries hosting US bases after each night of American bombing.
Trump’s decision followed warnings from advisers that the sets of targets selected in advance were largely exhausted and that continued operations could deplete the US arsenal.
An anonymous US official said General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, privately warned Trump that large-scale combat could resume but would put munitions stocks at risk, including air-defence interceptors used in the Middle East.
Caine’s office and US Central Command declined to comment, in keeping with the military’s practice of not discussing private advice to a serving president, even during congressional testimony.
Several media outlets linked the suspension to a Friday meeting at which Caine and other senior military and political advisers raised concerns.
CNN said Vice President JD Vance had expressed reservations, while Axios reported that Admiral Brad Cooper, overall commander of US forces in the Middle East, advised halting the bombing because it had reached the limits of its effectiveness.
Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the United Nations, told Fox News Sunday and other American media that President Donald Trump had paused the attacks to allow more time for diplomacy.
Trump was “giving talks some space”, he said, without elaborating.
On NBC’s Meet the Press, Waltz said the US military “has everything that it needs”, but added that Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth had “inherited a depleted situation” when he took over under the Trump administration.
The Iranian source said Tehran saw little reason to regard the suspension as a major change in Washington’s negotiating position.
The source described the mood as “more scepticism than optimism” and said the prevailing assessment was that the pause was tactical rather than genuine, reflecting Iran’s bitter experience with what it regards as US deception.
Washington described its nightly campaign as retaliation for Iranian attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, while the anonymous US official said the bombing was intended to deter further Iranian threats to vessels.
Iran responded by striking water desalination plants in nearby Gulf Arab states.
Tehran says it aims to retain control of the strait, a narrow waterway that has become a key flashpoint and carried one-fifth of global oil flows before the war.
The renewed US campaign also derailed an interim agreement reached the previous month to end the conflict.
Residents remained apprehensive.
Nader, a 49-year-old import-export business owner in Tehran, told Reuters by telephone that he doubted the pause would last.
“Everyone in the country is stuck in limbo,” he said, adding that “Trump is playing games with Iran” by neither ending the war and leaving the region nor striking decisively.
“It’s exhausting.”
Souce: Reuters
