A tenuous ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran held Sunday after President Trump announced that negotiators had hammered out a deal to end the conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Late Saturday, Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social that the potential agreement led him to “cancel the attack” planned against Iran for the weekend so his administration could focus on rapidly finalizing a deal.
“We have just been asked by Iran, and other Middle Eastern countries, to hold off any attack in that the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to,” the president posted. “This would include the immediate, complete, and total opening of the Hormuz Strait, and an end to Iran’s nuclear threat.”
Mr. Trump said Israel “joins me in this commitment.”
Iran’s acting defense minister, Brig. Gen. Majid Ebn Al-Reza, said on X that Tehran was “neither surprised nor passive” about Mr. Trump’s announcement and remained alert to concrete threats from the U.S.
Mr. Trump announced the pause hours after consulting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the regional crisis, according to reports from Axios and regional news outlets.
SEE ALSO: Iran says no talks with U.S. expected despite Trump’s assurances
A person briefed on the call said Saudi officials worry that Iran could respond to further U.S. strikes with attacks on civilian infrastructure in the Persian Gulf. Crown Prince Mohammed urged Mr. Trump to prioritize diplomacy and seek clarity on next steps before resuming military action.
U.S. Central Command conducted operations against Iran as recently as Thursday, with early morning strikes on “military command centers, missile and drone facilities, coastal surveillance and defense sites and maritime capabilities” in retaliation for ballistic missile attacks on U.S. forces, a statement said.
The region had been relatively calm despite reports that a tanker off the coast of Lima, Oman, was struck Saturday by “an unknown projectile” damaging the engine room. No casualties or claims of responsibility were reported.
Saudi Arabia joined the U.S. in strikes last week against logistics and weapons sites that Iran-backed militias were using in Iraq. Saudi Arabia accused Iraqi armed groups of targeting its oil facilities with drone attacks in support of Tehran.
The joint operations against Iran’s proxies in Iraq — days after Saudi strikes on Houthi militias in Yemen — marked a shift into overt military action for a kingdom long intent on avoiding direct conflict with Tehran.
Saudi Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman met Wednesday in Washington with Mr. Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance.
Officials from Qatar have continued to mediate among the parties as White House envoy Steve Witkoff represents the U.S. in ongoing deliberations.
An official involved in mediation efforts said the newest proposal calls for reopening the Strait of Hormuz and halting attacks across the region, including by Iranian-backed militias. The U.S., in exchange, would end its naval blockade on Iran and allow Tehran to export its oil as stated in the tentative ceasefire deal, he said.
The announcement to return to the negotiating table and halt planned attacks on Iran is another quick reversal by the White House. Mr. Trump said Friday during a Cabinet meeting at Camp David that the U.S. military strikes would be “going big.”
The joint strikes last week by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia hit bases run by the Popular Mobilization Forces, a collection of armed groups that are officially part of the Iraqi security forces but have close ties to Iran and often operate outside local government control. The groups have denied any role in the attacks on Saudi Arabia, claiming that the kingdom is attempting “to justify their inability to respond to the painful Yemeni strikes” against them.
Houthi rebels in Yemen have claimed responsibility for attacking Saudi oil facilities, but acknowledging the Houthis’ possible role in the attacks carries geopolitical risk.
At the Trump administration Cabinet meeting on Friday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth touted an apparent U.S. defeat of the Houthis in Yemen.
“You wonder why they’re not involved in this conflict, the Houthis, even though they’re a proxy of Iran?” he asked. “Because they’ve felt the weight of American power for 45 days and [President Trump] had the courage to do that.”
The status of the conflict has been in flux since a tenuous ceasefire agreement was announced in June. That memorandum of understanding crumbled as Iranian forces resumed attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
The war has become a sore spot for Republicans ahead of the U.S. midterm elections, with as much as 64% of Americans saying the war in Iran is not worth fighting, according to an Associated Press poll. The poll was conducted July 23-27. U.S. strikes resumed July 28 after the survey concluded.
U.S. gas prices have jumped by more than $1 per gallon since the conflict escalated in February. As Middle Eastern shipments ground to a halt, Brent crude, the global benchmark, surged from $70 a barrel to consistently over $100, briefly peaking at $126. The resulting supply shock drove U.S. oil and gas companies to double their profits last quarter.
A fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz. The 21-nautical-mile choke point ground to a halt after drone and missile strikes by Iranian-backed militias targeted commercial shipping, Gulf ports, and oil facilities. Meanwhile, international leaders, led by the Trump administration, firmly rejected Tehran’s attempt to levy a toll on transit through the waterway.
Several prominent Republicans and former Trump administration officials have grown vocal in their opposition to the administration’s Middle East strategy. On Saturday, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson hosted a gathering of dissenting figures, including former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who posted a photo of the meeting on social media.
“We said no more foreign wars and we meant it and supported Donald Trump because he made that promise,” Ms. Greene wrote in the post. “But he’s betrayed us all.”
The gathering was also attended by Rep. Thomas Massie, Kentucky Republican, and Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, who resigned in protest over the conflict in the Middle East. Mr. Massie, who has served in Congress since 2012, was defeated in the Kentucky Republican primary by an opponent endorsed by Mr. Trump.
Since the war began, 18 U.S. service members have been killed, though the Trump administration has disputed how those numbers are reported. Administration officials argue that combining casualties from before and after the June ceasefire creates an inaccurate picture, pointing instead to specific Defense Department tracking categories that log recent fallen service members separately.
The four most recent service members killed in the fighting have been placed in a category of “Overseas Operations” on the official Defense Casualty Analysis System, which Pentagon officials have repeatedly pointed to as the definitive source on the numbers of dead and wounded. Operations Epic Fury and Inherent Resolve are listed as categories.
The Army’s Pfc. Isabella Gonzales, Staff Sgt. Angel Rampersad, Staff Sgt. Emmanuel Swinton and 1st Lt. James Feehan have been killed in action in the Gulf region conflict since the start of July.
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