The U.S. military has halted airstrikes on Iran after almost two weeks of escalating bombing, as diplomatic efforts continue in an attempt to prevent a return to full-scale war.

Whether the United States and Iran have reached a turning point in a volatile conflict remains uncertain. The war will reach the five-month mark on Tuesday. President Donald Trump has both threatened additional strikes and said negotiations are continuing, while dismissing concerns that higher gasoline prices linked to the fighting could hurt Republicans in November’s midterm elections.

Further uncertainty surrounds Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned visit to Washington next week for talks with Trump. Israel, which began the war alongside the United States on Feb. 28, has so far been notably absent from the renewed American attacks connected to Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route through which 20% of the world’s oil normally passes. The narrow waterway links the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, making access to it central for energy exports from several Gulf producers.

“The Iranians understand that perhaps it could get worse because Israel could come into the conflict,” said Michael Singh, managing director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. At the same time, he said, Israel’s lack of involvement so far “may signal to the Iranians that we’re looking to limit the conflict.”

Singh, who served as senior Middle East director on the National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration, said he was cautious about drawing conclusions from the pause in fighting.

“If it turns into a multiday pause, that’ll be something significant,” he said. “But it’s hard to know. Is it an operational pause? Is it a pause to allow for some kind of behind-the-scenes diplomacy?”

A regional official involved in mediation efforts said intensive diplomacy was underway. The official described the pause in U.S. strikes, and in Iranian counterstrikes on neighboring countries hosting American forces, as a “positive signal that helps their efforts to de-escalate.”

The official said both Washington and Tehran want to return to the interim ceasefire agreement, and that a compromise now under negotiation centers on allowing Iran to manage vessel transit through the Strait of Hormuz with fewer restrictions on ships. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

On Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei, confirmed that Iran and Oman had held several rounds of technical talks in Iran over the weekend about the strait. He said the Omani delegation left Tehran on Saturday afternoon, but added that the talks had made progress and were continuing.

Iran placed a chokehold on the narrow Persian Gulf waterway at the start of the war by firing on tankers and freighters. Oil prices have risen sharply during the conflict, which has been unpopular with many Americans and could expose some Republican lawmakers to political vulnerability in November.

After an interim ceasefire agreement was signed in June, a struggle for control of the strait intensified. Iran demanded that ships use a route close to its coastline and said it could potentially charge fees. Vessels had increasingly been using a southern route along the coast of Oman under a U.S. overwatch operation when Iran attacked some ships.

The United States then resumed attacks on Iran’s coastal defenses, seeking to reduce Tehran’s ability to strike ships in the strait. The Trump administration later broadened its targets, hitting bridges and infrastructure in southern Iran and striking deeper into the country’s center.

Singh said the strikes appear intended to pressure Iran back to the negotiating table. The key issue now, he said, is “What kind of messages, if any, is the Iranian regime sending through diplomatic channels? Have those messages changed? Do they seem more eager to return to talks?”

One challenge for the United States is Iran’s fractured leadership, with different factions competing for control, Singh said. Trump administration officials have also pointed to that issue. Iranian leaders may fear that a compromise with the United States would be perceived as weakness and could undermine their hold on power.

Regardless, both the United States and Iran need the strait reopened for economic reasons.

“But they have very different conceptions of under what conditions, under whose control,” Singh said. “So we have to get to some kind of stable equilibrium on those questions before you’re going to see a longer period of quiet. I think this effort to negotiate with words and also to negotiate with force is going to continue until we reach that equilibrium.”

Regional tensions remain elevated despite the pause in direct fighting.

Yemen’s Houthi rebels said Saturday that they launched missiles and drones at Saudi Arabia in response to Saudi airstrikes on the strategic Red Sea city of Hodeida. The Iran-backed rebels say they have closed the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which has become even more important for Saudi oil exports because of the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz. The Bab el-Mandeb connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden, so disruption there can affect traffic moving toward the Suez Canal as well as regional energy shipments.

The U.S. military is also enforcing its naval blockade of Iranian ports. It said it disabled a Mozambique-flagged ship in the Gulf of Oman on Friday after the vessel attempted to violate the blockade and ignored warnings.

Trump has continued to threaten Iran while also emphasizing diplomacy. Asked Friday about his exit strategy, Trump said there were two options.

“You can just keep doing exactly what we’re doing and take them apart piece by piece. We could do it in a more rapid fashion, which we might do,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “Or we can negotiate with them, which we’re also doing right now.”

Trump said he did not think Iran was “ready yet” to reach an agreement, but added, “I think they’re getting more and more serious as the days go by, for maybe the obvious reason.”

On Friday, Trump met with senior national security aides to discuss the situation with Iran and whether the administration should maintain its current approach or escalate military attacks, according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations. No U.S. strikes took place in Iran overnight after 13 consecutive nights of attacks.

Trump also insisted Friday that he was “not in a hurry” to bring the conflict to a close because of the approaching elections. Voters angered by high food and gasoline prices could vote his Republican Party out of control of Congress.

“Despite what everyone says about the election, I’m not in a hurry,” Trump said. “We have to do it right. Elections take care of themselves.”