Iran will stop its attacks as long as the US does the same, a senior Iranian official said on July 26. This development occurred when the US temporarily suspended the bombing campaign after US President Donald Trump's advisors told him that they were running out of targets and expressed concern about the US arsenal being depleted, AFP reported.
After 13 nights of increasingly fierce US airstrikes on Iran, the Pentagon suspended the operation on the evening of July 24, and no US attacks were recorded in the past weekend. Iran, a country that responded after each night of US attacks with raids targeting neighboring countries with US bases, has so far also stopped firing for 2 days.
US Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said that Mr. Trump has decided to suspend the attacks to create more time for diplomacy. "He is creating space for negotiations, he is giving up a little space for that," Mr. Waltz said without providing further details.
Restarting major operations is still one option, but General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has warned Mr. Trump privately that it will carry risks due to negative impacts on ammunition reserves, including interceptor missiles used by US air defense systems in the Middle East.
In the past two weeks, US forces have attacked Iran every night, which the US believes is to retaliate against Iran's attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian forces have responded to US attacks by targeting desalination plants in neighboring Gulf Arab countries. Iran said their goal is to maintain control of the strait, the route that one-fifth of global oil has passed through before the war.
The new US military campaign has truly destroyed last month's temporary agreement aimed at ending the war. Mr. Trump's decision to temporarily suspend attacks was made after what many media outlets described as a meeting on July 24, where General Caine and other senior military and political advisors raised concerns.
