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

Reports on Sunday said neither the US 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 US and Iranian retaliation on US allies in the Gulf came amid hopes of a return to diplomacy.

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US 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 US 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.

US broadcaster CBS, quoting two regional sources, reported that the US decision to pause the bombing was made due to the arrival in Tehran of a delegation from Oman.

The prospects for peace between Tehran and Washington remain hindered by lingering mistrust, however. Since the conflict began, Iranian officials have been quick to note that they have been attacked by the United States and Israel during periods of negotiation on several previous occasions.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei told the Australian broadcaster ORF on Sunday that mediators, including Qatar and Pakistan, are exchanging messages between Iran and the US. 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.

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

Trump shared a series of AI-generated images on social media on Sunday, portraying US fighters bombing Iran with the caption “Guardian Angels of the World” with his image in the background. Another AI-generated image shows Trump planting a US flag on an Iranian commercial vessel with the caption “It’s our oil tanker now!”

But the US president faces growing pressure to find a way to end the war that he launched alongside Israel in late February.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, set to meet with Trump during a visit to the US 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”.

“The most recent poll conducted by Ipsos and The Washington Post in the US 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,” Al Jazeera correspondent Rosalind Jordan reported.

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

Tensions in the Strait continue

Regarding the Omani delegation, Baghaei said the talks about managing marine 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.

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

The US 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 Iran’s 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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They also reported that an oil tanker exploded after hitting a mine in the strait. The Tasmin News Agency reported that the ship struck a mine after leaving the Iranian-approved route.

Control over the Strait of Hormuz is a point of contention between the US and Iran. Iran says it controls passage through the waterway under a memorandum of understanding that was signed by Washington and Tehran in June and established a 60-day period for the final terms of a deal to be negotiated.

The US says Iran does not control the strait and has tried to create a secondary route for vessels to transit the waterway.