Tehran said it had halted retaliatory attacks against US allies in the Middle East as Washington refrained from attacking Iran for the second night in a row.
A top military official in Tehran, meanwhile, threatened to widen Iran’s attacks across the region, suggesting that Iran-allied Houthi rebels in Yemen could step up attacks on Red Sea shipping traffic.
The overnight lull in attacks on July 26 came two days ahead of a key meeting scheduled in Washington between President Donald Trump and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu.
That July 28 visit falls exactly five months since US and Israeli forces launched a wide campaign of air strikes on Iranian targets.
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Trump Says Iran 'Far More Serious' In Talks, Even As Attacks Intensify, Widen In RegionIran has pushed back, attacking US allies in the Middle East and essentially closing the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint waterway through which a massive amount of oil and gas normally passes en route to global markets.
In past weeks, Washington declared a partial cease-fire, though prior to July 24, there were nearly two weeks of consecutive US bombardments of Iranian targets.
The lull in US attacks was a result of a decision to let behind-the-scene peace talks take place, said Mike Waltz, US ambassador to the United Nations.
Trump "is keeping all options on the table," Waltz said in an interview with NBC News. "What the president is doing right now, as we've seen all along, is giving the talks some space. Talks are ongoing. They're happening at every level from the more technical aspect of it, all the way to the highest levels of course."
But the lull has also been partly motivated by dwindling US stockpiles for interceptors to shoot down Iranian missiles, which has worried US military planners, according to The New York Times.
Vice President JD Vance and General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, both raised concerns about escalation at a White House meeting, CNN reported.
US administration officials insist that its forces remain well-equipped, though Waltz appeared to suggest that indeed some weapons stockpiles had been depleted, partly as a result of the US supplying weaponry to Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
He also laid blame on the administration of Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden.
"A lot of stockpiles were depleted not only from what we gave Ukraine over the last however many years, four or five years," he said in the NBC interview broadcast on July 26.
The Pentagon "inherited a depleted situation from not only Ukraine but also the ongoing fight with the Houthis under the Biden administration and the depleted military under the Biden administration," he said.
There was no immediate reaction to Waltz's comments from former Biden administration officials.
A spokesman for Iran's military warned on July 26 that the war would widen even further if the US chose to restart its attacks.
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In Iran's South, A Renewed War Means No Power, No Fuel, And Boats Lost"These attacks continued until two nights ago, but over the past two nights the Americans have stopped their attacks," army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia was quoted by Iran's semiofficial Mehr news agency as saying.
"Since... our strategy has essentially been retaliatory, we have also halted our retaliatory operations,” he said.
Speaking at the White House on July 26, Trump said he had not decided whether to return to an all-out operation. He also said Iran faced a choice between a deal and strikes at a "much higher level.”
In addition to concerns about US weapons stockpiles, growing misgivings among US voters could also be weighing on White House war plans. Polls show the Iran war is widely unpopular, which may become a major issue for Trump’s Republican Party in upcoming congressional elections in November.
Houthi rebels in Yemen said they had downed a drone launched by US-allied Saudi Arabia -- the latest in a series of small-scale confrontations that have fueled fears that the Iran conflict could widen further across the region.
In recent days, the Houthis also claimed attacks on Saudi oil facilities.
Iran's military stopped six vessels attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz over the previous 24 hours, state television reported July 26.
Tehran said it had made progress in talks with Oman -- which borders the narrowest part of the strait -- on "common principles and operational mechanisms" for shipping.
Oman and Iran said they would discuss imposing service fees, a move Washington opposes.