U.S. Skips a Night of Strikes on Iran for the First Time in Two Weeks as Trump Says Talks Are "Serious"

For the first time since the truce with Tehran collapsed in early July, the U.S. military did not announce overnight strikes on Iran, breaking a streak of 13 consecutive nights of bombing and handing mediators a narrow opening to test whether the latest round of talks amounts to anything.

Hossein Kermanpour, a spokesman for Iran's Health Ministry, wrote on X that "Iran had a peaceful night." U.S. Central Command, which has issued a nightly readout of targets struck since the campaign resumed, released no such statement Friday into Saturday. Neither government described the lull as a formal ceasefire, and neither said it would last.

President Donald Trump spent Friday sending signals in both directions. He told reporters that Washington is still in contact with Tehran and that "I think they're being serious," while stressing that he had not decided whether to authorize a heavier round of attacks. He also warned that the United States was "locked and loaded" and prepared to escalate on short notice, and he has publicly floated hitting Iran's Kharg Island oil terminal and the underground complex at Pickaxe Mountain. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the administration "remains open to a diplomatic solution."

The fighting reignited this month over control of the Strait of Hormuz, the channel through which roughly a fifth of the world's seaborne oil moves. Washington accused Iran of striking three vessels in the waterway in early July and answered with dozens of strikes on Iranian ports, bridges and power infrastructure; Iran fired back at American bases in neighboring Arab states and threatened buildings housing U.S. personnel. More than 3,400 people have been killed in Iran since the wider conflict began. The Pentagon this week revised its official count of American service members killed in the war from 18 to 14, a change it has not fully explained. Israel has reported 38 soldiers and 24 civilians killed, and more than 4,000 people have died in Lebanon.

The pause did not extend to the rest of the region. Saudi Arabia struck the Houthi-held Yemeni port of Hodeidah after the group attacked Saudi-linked shipping in the Red Sea, and Saudi air defenses intercepted two ballistic missiles aimed at refineries near Yanbu. Black smoke was still rising from Saudi Aramco's Jizan refinery, hit earlier in the week.

Israeli officials, briefed on the diplomacy, described the quiet night as a temporary reprieve rather than a turn, saying the odds of a durable U.S.-Iran agreement remain slim. Mediators have circulated the outline of a 10-day halt intended to lower the temperature enough for negotiators to reconvene. Whether Trump accepts it, aides say, will likely be decided in the coming days.