The U.S. military held off strikes on Iran for a second consecutive night into Sunday, and Tehran said it had suspended its own retaliatory attacks on American allies, as Omani-mediated talks on reopening the Strait of Hormuz advanced.
The pause creates the first visible off-ramp in an almost-five-month war that in the past two weeks brought 13 consecutive nights of American bombing, an Iranian ballistic strike that killed U.S. service members in Jordan, and a widening Houthi campaign against Saudi Arabia. Whether it holds is unclear: Iran-backed Houthi rebels fired ballistic missiles and drones at Saudi Aramco oil facilities in Jizan and Yanbu on Saturday, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who launched the war jointly with President Trump on Feb. 28, arrives in Washington on Tuesday.
Tehran halts retaliation
Iranian army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia said Sunday that Tehran had wound down its counterstrikes after Washington called off attacks. "These attacks continued until two nights ago, but over the past two nights the Americans have stopped their attacks," Akraminia said. "Since... our strategy has essentially been retaliatory, we have also halted our retaliatory operations." The Iranian army also warned that the conflict would expand if U.S. bombing resumed.
"Mediators are working and trying to prevent tension from escalating," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, told a press conference Sunday. Two regional sources told CBS News that Oman-Iran talks on reopening the strait had progressed but needed more time to close a deal.
The Friday decision
President Trump held off further strikes after a Friday Oval Office meeting at which Vice President JD Vance and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned him of dwindling stockpiles of Patriot interceptors and Tomahawk cruise missiles and of the risks of a sustained campaign, according to the Guardian. Trump told reporters the same day the United States was "locked and loaded and ready to go" but "talking to them." He said Iran was becoming "more and more serious" about negotiations. Al Jazeera, citing Axios, reported that Qatar, Egypt, Pakistan and other regional mediators had presented Washington and Tehran with a proposal for a 10-day pause to allow talks to resume on a June memorandum of understanding.
The Houthi front widens
Even as the airstrike lull held, the war's proxy fronts kept spreading. Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree said Saturday the group had fired "dozens of ballistic and cruise missiles and drones" at Aramco facilities in the Red Sea cities of Yanbu and Jizan in retaliation for Saudi airstrikes late Friday on the Yemeni port of Hodeida. Saudi civil defense sounded alerts multiple times in both cities but did not comment on damage. The Houthis confirmed that their maritime blockade of the Bab el-Mandeb strait against Saudi-flagged shipping remained in effect. Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell to six vessels Thursday, intelligence firm Kpler said, while transit through the Bab el-Mandeb rebounded to 49 ships as some operators resumed crossings.
Skeptics on both sides
The pause has doubters. An Iranian army spokesman said the U.S. was "experiencing strategic decision-making fatigue" — language suggesting hardliners in Tehran read the halt as weakness rather than opening. Netanyahu, who plans to convene his security cabinet before flying to Washington on Monday, has publicly criticized U.S. negotiators for prioritizing the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz over Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The White House and U.S. Central Command did not respond to requests for comment.
Netanyahu meets Trump at the White House on Tuesday. That same week, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Caine are due in London for a U.S.-U.K. conference on the Strait of Hormuz first reported by Axios, the BBC said. The war reaches its five-month point Tuesday.