Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday (July 27) that Tehran remained firmly in control of the Strait of Hormuz and was not seeking talks with the United States, after US President Donald Trump halted a two-week bombing campaign on the advice of military commanders who said it had achieved its objectives.
After 13 successive nights of intensifying bombing that provoked Tehran to fire on US bases in response, Trump halted the campaign over the weekend.
Iran said it would pause its own attacks for as long as the US pause in bombing endures. Tehran in recent days has counterattacked against countries in the region hosting US military forces, killing at least three service members at a base in Jordan and one in Iraq.
Trump’s decision to suspend the campaign reflected advice from his top brass that the bombing, aimed at breaking Iran’s grip on the strait, had reached the limits of what it could achieve, according to a US official and widespread US media reports.
US President Donald Trump is “giving talks some space. He's giving it a little bit of room," Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the United Nations, told Fox News.
"We've had both Oman and Iran, and a number of our other negotiators, engaged at every level, from the most senior levels all the way down to the technical level over the past few weeks, and particularly in the past few days.", Waltz said.
Waltz dismissed the idea that the US stockpile of interceptors crucial in defending against Iranian attacks is running low, but experts have questioned how long both the US and Iran can afford to keep up attacks.
