The war between the United States and Iran remained on pause for a second straight day on Sunday, while the Iranian Foreign Ministry said that there had been some movement in talks between Tehran and mediators over the Strait of Hormuz.
No U.S. strikes on Iran have been reported since Friday, while Iran has similarly held off attacking American allies around the Middle East after about two weeks of skirmishes brought the two countries back to the brink of full-blown war.
President Trump decided last week to put off plans to escalate the U.S. assault on Iran, at least for now, according to U.S. officials. Mr. Trump and his aides were motivated in part by dwindling stockpiles of interceptors to shoot down Iranian missiles, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.
Mr. Trump has struggled to decisively end the war on Iran that the United States and Israel started jointly five months ago, even as the global economic toll and number of American casualties have mounted. A cease-fire signed last month effectively collapsed after Iran continued to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway for global oil and gas shipments.
Two weeks of American bombing runs on southern Iran have failed to break the deadlock over the strait. Before the war, ships could freely travel through the waterway — but Tehran has since effectively blocked transit, throttling global energy markets and increasing the pressure on Mr. Trump to end the war.
Esmaeil Baghaei, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that officials from the Gulf sultanate of Oman, which abuts the Strait of Hormuz, visited Tehran over the weekend for talks about the waterway. Oman has occasionally served as a mediator between Iran and the United States.
“These talks were useful, and progress was achieved,” Mr. Baghaei said in remarks carried by state media, though he offered no further details.
Even as parts of the Middle East experienced their first quiet nights in weeks, at least one front remained open, in Yemen. Over the past week, the Iran-backed Houthis, who control significant parts of Yemen, have engaged in their biggest escalation since 2022 with the U.S.-allied Saudi Arabia.
Last week, the Houthis declared a maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea and fired on passing ships they said were linked to the kingdom, their northern neighbor. The Houthis can effectively close another naval choke point — the Bab al-Mandab Strait — which connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and is another of the world’s most important shipping routes.
The Houthi blockade is threatening to squeeze global oil supplies further. The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, was up more than 7 percent, at $100.95 a barrel on Friday, before dropping to around $98.
Saudi-led forces bombarded Houthi-aligned sites in Yemen on Saturday, according to a Saudi military spokesman. The Houthis also said that they had fired rockets and drones at installations affiliated with Saudi Aramco, the Saudi state-owned energy company, along the Red Sea. The Saudi authorities did not comment on whether there had been any damage or casualties.
