Trump orders halt to new US strikes on Iran

President Donald Trump ordered the US military to halt new strikes on Iran on Friday, ending a nearly two-week streak of daily attacks, Axios reported.

The decision reflected both an opening for diplomacy and an assessment that the current strikes had reached the limits of their effectiveness, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Why did Trump halt US strikes on Iran?

Trump's move opened space for diplomacy while acknowledging that continued strikes had reached their practical limits, two sources told Axios. The Pentagon is still drafting contingency plans for a possible return to major combat, though Trump has not approved any new operation. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

A senior administration official said Trump "has always been clear that his preference is diplomacy, but he has shown Iran what will happen if they fail to come to the table in a serious way." The New York Times reported Saturday that Trump had decided, for now, to back away from plans to ramp up attacks on Iran, citing two people briefed on the discussion.

What is happening between Iran and Ukraine in the Caspian Sea?

Iran accused Ukraine on Saturday of attacking one of its merchant vessels in the Caspian Sea, killing one sailor and wounding another. Iran's foreign ministry said the attack caused the ship to explode and warned it would not leave the incident unanswered, according to state news agency IRNA. The ministry said Iran "has never intervened in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media that his forces had achieved strong results from long range strikes in the Caspian Sea, including against vessels used for military cargo shipments involving Iran and a warship. Ukraine's SBU intelligence service said on Telegram that drone attacks had targeted sanctioned cargo vessels used to move military cargo between Iran and Russia. Iran summoned Ukraine's charge d'affaires in Tehran to protest what it called a "hostile and criminal act," and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi urged the European Union and the UN Security Council to respond firmly.

Is the Iran war spreading to Yemen and Saudi Arabia?

Yemen's Iran aligned Houthis struck Saudi Aramco oil sites in Jizan and Yanbu on Saturday, a Houthi military spokesperson said. Video verified by Reuters showed smoke rising from the Jizan refinery, which can process up to 400,000 barrels of crude daily. Two missiles aimed at oil installations in Yanbu, a key Red Sea export route around the Iran blockaded Strait of Hormuz, were intercepted.

In Yemen, the Saudi backed government's air force struck Houthi sites in Marib and al-Jawf provinces, and officials said both sides were mobilizing forces along the front. A ceasefire that had held since 2022 in Yemen's civil war, which killed hundreds of thousands through fighting and famine, broke down this month as the Houthis joined the wider war waged by their Iranian allies.

What has the US military said about the pause?

The US military said Saturday that its naval blockade against Iran "remains in full effect" but did not explain why it halted a streak of 13 nights of escalating strikes. There were no weekend reports of Iranian attacks on its neighbors, a break from its daily response pattern to earlier US strikes. A Department of Defense source told CNN that operations were "on a hold."

Trump and his advisers have concerns about expanding the conflict, depleting defense stockpiles, alienating Gulf allies and disrupting energy supplies and the global economy, the New York Times reported. Vice President JD Vance and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, both raised concerns about US munitions stockpiles with Trump during a White House meeting Friday, a US official told CNN.