A week after Iran killed American troops in Jordan—crossing President Donald Trump's stated red line for restarting all-out war—the U.S. military did not launch new airstrikes against the Iranian regime. Friday passed without an announcement from U.S. Central Command regarding any new attack, breaking a streak of near-daily bombardment lasting nearly two weeks.

According to sources who spoke with Axios, Trump received military plans yesterday to conduct strikes inside Iran but declined to authorize them, instead ordering a hold. U.S. forces remain prepared for major combat operations to potentially resume, the report added, though Trump has not issued orders directing any such escalation. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While the U.S. military did carry out additional airstrikes in retaliation for last week's troop deaths, those operations remained well short of the widespread bombing campaign seen early in the war. At the same time, Trump has indicated that diplomacy is ongoing and signaled a preference for negotiations over further fighting, despite reports that he has grown impatient with the Islamic Republic and was in "revenge mode."

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said he retains the option to continue strikes, escalate by "knocking out everything they have," or pursue what he called a "smarter strategy" of making a deal. He insisted that Iran wants the latter.

"They want to make a deal. I just don't think they're ready yet, but they do want to make a deal. Sometimes they don't want to say they want to make a deal. They want to be the tough guys," Trump said, adding that both sides are currently engaged in negotiations.

The lull in fighting persists despite fresh U.S. casualties and continued Iranian attacks on commercial traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, including strikes on ships using a route near Oman's coast that is defended by Central Command. Those attacks have effectively closed off the narrow waterway once again, severing oil supplies to global markets and driving crude prices higher. The strait normally handles roughly a fifth of global oil consumption, and no viable overland alternative exists for rerouting the volumes that pass through it from Persian Gulf producers.

However, Omani officials traveled to Tehran on Friday for talks on a new arrangement that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Oman has long served as a diplomatic intermediary between Iran and the West, maintaining channels with both sides during periods of acute regional tension. Sources told Axios that negotiations have made progress, and an Oman-Iran agreement could potentially be reached over the weekend. If another Hormuz deal is announced without U.S. participation, Trump would likely face a choice between going along with it or denouncing it. Tehran, for its part, has demanded authority over the strait and seeks to impose fees on passing ships.

The possibility of full-blown war resuming remains. The U.S. has surged special operations troops, bombers, fighter jets, and medics to the Middle East over the past week, according to the Wall Street Journal. Yet the daily U.S. bombardment of Iran over the preceding two weeks did little to alter Iran's tactics, which have included missile and drone strikes against neighboring Gulf states and U.S. bases in the region.

Meanwhile, the conflict is drawing in additional combatants. Bahrain and Kuwait secretly dispatched fighter jets to bomb Iran, marking their first such attacks, sources told the Journal. This follows earlier strikes on Iran by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates earlier in the war.

Saudi Arabia is simultaneously battling Iran-backed Houthi rebels, who have vowed to shut the Bab el-Mandeb Strait to Saudi-linked shipping. Houthis struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea this week, prompting Saudi Arabia to bomb the Yemeni port city of Hodeida in response. The Bab el-Mandeb Strait, located at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is another critical shipping chokepoint connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.

The prospect of a Red Sea standoff compounding crises in the Persian Gulf and the Black Sea—where Ukrainian attacks have struck Russian fuel tankers—has further roiled energy markets, pulling stocks and bonds lower in the process.

Oil market expert Rory Johnston wrote in a post on X on Friday that Trump may simply abandon the Iran war and "leave everyone else with the mess."

"Question is at what level of market stress—crude/pump price, equity market rout, etc.—will force Trump to do so?"