U.S. and Iran Trade Strikes Before Trump Cancels Attack
President Trump said Sunday he canceled planned strikes on Iran after a week in which the two countries exchanged missile and drone attacks that spread to Kuwait and other Gulf states.
The Morning Brief Desk · August 2, 2026 · Based on reporting by BBC World
The United States and Iran traded strikes this week before President Trump announced Sunday that he had called off a planned attack, saying Iran and other Middle Eastern countries asked Washington to hold off because "the perimeters of a deal" had been agreed. He said the pause depended on a deal being reached rapidly.
The latest cycle began Tuesday, when Iran fired ballistic missiles at U.S. bases in Jordan and at ships in the Strait of Hormuz, according to U.S. Central Command. Centcom said it responded with a "heavy wave" of strikes on dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets. Iranian state media said three people, including a two-year-old child, were killed on Qeshm island when a residential building was hit, with explosions also reported in Fars, Bushehr, Khuzestan and Hormozgan provinces and on Kish island.
On Friday, Iran's army said it launched drones at U.S. military facilities at Kuwait's Ahmad Al-Jaber airbase, hitting hangars, satellite communication systems and equipment warehouses, according to a statement carried by the semiofficial Tasnim news agency. Tehran called the strike retaliation for the U.S. attack on Qeshm island. Al Jazeera reported that the U.S. had not responded to the Kuwait attack and that damage and casualty figures were not known. Before the reversal, Trump posted that the U.S. was "locked and loaded" against Iran.
The context
The U.S. and Iran have engaged in escalating strikes and counterstrikes since an April ceasefire, meant to pause a war that began with U.S. and Israeli strikes on February 28, collapsed in June, the BBC reported. Since then, the U.S. has blockaded Iranian ports and bombed sites inside Iran, while Iran has fired missiles and drones at American assets across the region and targeted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. This week the conflict widened: the U.S. and Saudi Arabia announced their first joint strikes on Iranian proxies in Iraq, and Egypt said a drone attack caused a port fire, the first direct hit on the U.S. ally during the war. A brief lull earlier in the week, which Trump described as "very friendly negotiations," ended after Iran's missile attack on a U.S. base in Jordan; Tehran had denied any talks were taking place. In April, threats from Trump led to face-to-face talks in Pakistan headed by Vice President JD Vance, but those ended without a deal.
Why it matters
The exchange marked a widening of the war beyond Iran itself, drawing in Kuwait, Jordan and Egypt and raising the risk to U.S. forces and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a key link between the Gulf and the Arabian Sea. A Tehran-based analyst told Al Jazeera that Iran is pursuing "horizontal escalation" by expanding the conflict's geography while the U.S. intensifies its strikes, and warned Iran wants either a permanent end to the war or a wide regional conflict. Whether Trump's announced pause holds could determine if diplomacy or a broader war follows.
What’s next
The central question is whether a deal materializes on the rapid timeline Trump set as his condition for holding fire. Iran has not confirmed requesting new talks or agreeing to any deal framework, the BBC reported, and its acting defense minister said Tehran treats every threat as "real and credible." U.S. media reports said Washington and Israel had been planning an intense bombing campaign against Iranian energy infrastructure, and the U.S. government has urged Americans in the region to be ready to leave if escalation resumes.
Sources
BBC World — Trump cancels Iran strikes subject to deal being made 'rapidly'
The US president claims Iran and other Middle Eastern countries asked Washington to hold off on any attack as the 'perimeters' of a deal had been agreed.
BBC World — US launches 'heavy' strikes on Iran after attempted attack on American troops
After a short pause in hostilities, both sides restarted missile attacks; the US launched heavy strikes on Iran following an attempted Iranian attack on American troops.
Al Jazeera — IRGC strikes US targets in Kuwait a day after US hits Iran: Latest events
Iran says it struck Kuwait in retaliation for US strikes on multiple locations in Iran, including Qeshm island.
CNBC — Trump cancels planned attack on Iran, saying he reached an agreement over the 'perimeters of a deal'
The U.S. president said Iran and its regional neighbors asked the U.S. to hold off on attacks after 'the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to.'
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