U.S. and Iran hit pause on strikes for second day

Jul 27, 2026 News

(AL-JAZEERA) The United States and Iran have pressed pause for a second day on what had been an escalating conflict.

Reports on Sunday said neither the U.S. nor Iran had launched strikes for a second day in a row. The sudden period of calm after two weeks of nightly attacks on Iran by the U.S., and Iranian retaliation on U.S. allies in the Gulf comes amid hopes of a return to diplomacy.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz told Fox News on Sunday that President Donald Trump was “giving [the potential for] talks … a little bit of room”.

While noting that the president has said the U.S. was “locked and loaded”, Waltz said negotiators have been engaged at every level over the past few weeks, and in particular, over the past few days.

U.S. broadcaster CBS, quoting two regional sources, reported that the U.S. decision to pause the bombing was made due to the arrival of an Omani delegation in Tehran.

U.S. and Iran hit pause on strikes for second day

U.S. Central Command says, on 25th July , 2026, that this image shows operations enforcing the U.S. naval blockade against Iran [Screengrab/Handout/CENTCOM via AFP]

The prospects for peace between Tehran and Washington remain hindered by lingering mistrust, however. Since the U.S. and Israel began their war on Iran in late February, Iranian officials have been quick to note that they have been attacked by the U.S. and Israel during periods of negotiation on several previous occasions.

Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told the Austrian broadcaster ORF on Sunday that mediators, including Qatar and Pakistan, are exchanging messages between Iran and the U.S. But he added that Iran’s past efforts at diplomacy have been “betrayed”.

The New York Times reported that Trump paused plans to escalate attacks due to concerns about draining the Pentagon’s diminishing stockpile of missile interceptors and other air defence munitions in the Middle East.

Iran’s army, meanwhile, said it had halted its strikes in the Gulf.

“Our strategy has essentially been retaliatory. We have also halted our retaliatory operations,” Iranian army spokesman Mohammad Akraminia said, according to the AFP news agency.

However, like the U.S., Iran was also sure to maintain its bullish rhetoric, with Akraminia warning that the conflict would widen further if the U.S. continues its attacks.

Trump shared a series of AI-generated images on social media on Sunday. One portrayed U.S. fighters bombing Iran, with the caption “Guardian Angels of the World”. Another AI-generated image showed Trump planting a U.S. flag on an Iranian commercial vessel, with the caption “It’s our oil tanker now!”

But the U.S. president faces growing pressure to find a way to end the war on Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, set to meet with Trump during a visit to the U.S. on Tuesday, warned during a television interview with Fox News on Sunday that a resumption of attacks on Israel by Iran or its regional allies would be a “terrible mistake” and would elicit a “very, very forceful response”.

Al Jazeera’s Rosalind Jordan, meanwhile, reported that “the most recent poll conducted by Ipsos and The Washington Post in the U.S. indicates that just 29 percent of those surveyed believe that the president is handling the war with Iran appropriately, or approve of the war overall, while 28 percent say the war was worth it”.

“There are a lot of questions about the status of the conflict between Iran and the U.S., but certainly, there is growing pressure on the U.S. president to basically try to figure out: what is the exit strategy?” she added.

Tensions in Strait of Hormuz continue

Regarding the Omani delegation, Baghaei said the talks about managing traffic in the Strait of Hormuz – the focus of the recent outbreak of hostilities – were “useful, and progress was made”.

“Technical and political consultations” are ongoing, he added.

However, incidents in the waterway, a key export route for oil and natural gas from the region, continued, maintaining the risk of escalation.

The U.S. military’s Central Command said on Sunday that its naval blockade of Iran “remains in full effect”.

It noted that as of Saturday, it had redirected 12 commercial vessels, disabled two that had not complied with directions and boarded two “to ensure total compliance”.

Iranian media reported that the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps stopped six vessels from trying to transit the strait over the previous 24 hours by firing warning shots.

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bombing, Strait of Hormuz, U.S. and Iran, war

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