Iran says it will halt strikes as long as US bombing pause holds

DUBAI/WASHINGTON, July 26 (Reuters) - Iran will halt its own attacks as long as the United States does the same, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Sunday. The development comes as the United States pressed pause on its bombing campaign after President Donald Trump's advisers told him they were running out of targets and expressed worries about depleting the U.S. arsenal. The Iranian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Tehran's position "remains 'attack for attack': if the attacks stop, Iran will also halt its operations. That message has already been conveyed to the United States." U.S. military officials in recent days have cautioned that bombings over the past two weeks meant to deter Iranian threats to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz had largely exhausted the pre-selected sets of targets, one U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The senior Iranian source told Reuters that Tehran did not hold much hope that Trump's decision to pause strikes represented a major shift in the U.S. negotiating position. "There is more scepticism than optimism about the halt in attacks. The prevailing view is that the pause is tactical rather than genuine. Iran has accumulated enough bitter experience with what it sees as U.S. deception," the source said. After 13 nights of intensifying U.S. airstrikes on Iran, the Pentagon suspended the campaign late on Friday, with no U.S. attacks reported on either Saturday or Sunday. Iran has also so far held fire for two days. Resuming major combat operations remains an option, but General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has cautioned privately to Trump that it would carry risk given the negative impact on stocks of munitions, the official said. That includes interceptors used by U.S. air defenses in the Middle East. CNN said Vice President JD Vance had expressed reservations. Axios reported that the overall commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, Admiral Brad Cooper, had advised halting the U.S. bombing campaign because it had reached the limits of its effectiveness.