The U.S. paused strikes on Iranian targets for the second straight day on Sunday, reportedly in part over concerns about dwindling stockpiles of the interceptors needed to shoot down retaliatory Iranian missiles.
The last wave of U.S. military strikes in Iran occurred Friday, concluding a sequence of 13 consecutive nights of bombings.
Diplomatic talks and indirect negotiations are underway, including Oman’s mediation efforts to de-escalate the conflict.
A struggle for control of the Strait of Hormuz erupted between the U.S. and Iran even after the signing of an interim ceasefire deal in June. Tehran demanded that all commercial ships going through the strategic choke point use a route near its coastline and said it could charge fees for the passage.
On Sunday, the Iranian foreign ministry summoned Ukraine’s envoy to the country to protest a long-range drone strike on one of its commercial vessels in the Caspian Sea that Kyiv said was transporting military supplies to Russia.
“The Ukrainian government must be held accountable for the incident and punish those responsible,” officials in Tehran said, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.
Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv has evidence Moscow is providing satellite information to Iran for its use against targets in the region, including U.S. bases in the Middle East.
“We have recorded active Russian satellite surveillance of the Gulf states and U.S. military facilities located there. These images subsequently appear in Iran,” Mr. Zelenskyy said this weekend on his Telegram page. “There is a clear correlation between Russia’s satellite imagery of those sites and Iranian strikes.”
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