As Trump cites progress on deal to end war, Iran and Israel remain on alert 16%
By Mohamad El Chamaa80% Lior Soroka78% Amy B Wang79% Sammy Westfall68% (c) 202631% The Washington Post31%
8/2/2026, 1:46:11 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 10 faulty reasoning types, including Framing Effect, Recency Bias, and Confirmation Bias, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 24.3% saturation with 240 hits. Analysis detected 596 faulty-reasoning hits from 988 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 27.4% and a BS Rank of 16% (21,313 of 25,289 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 84.30% of the article peer group.
As President Donald Trump said he was canceling planned strikes on Iran and cited progress toward a deal to end the war, there was no immediate sign of a breakthrough in Tehran and Israel said it remained on high alert.
Trump said on Truth Social late Saturday that U.S. forces were ready for a full-scale attack on Iran but would hold their fire after the parameters of a deal emerged with Tehran and Middle Eastern countries that would include the opening of the vital Strait of Hormuz and an end to Iran's nuclear threat.
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"Based on this request, I have agreed, for the future benefit of the WORLD and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran, to cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL," Trump said, adding that Israel shared this view.
Iran's acting defense minister, Majid Ebn-e-Reza, called Trump's post a form of "psychological operations and cognitive warfare" and said the country would still brace for attacks.
Iran's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Also on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said negotiations between Oman and Iran over how to govern the Strait of Hormuz have entered the final stages, according to state media IRNA News Agency, but there were no immediate details.
But Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the Oman deal would not mean the reopening of the strait, IRNA reported.
"Under no circumstances will the Strait of Hormuz return to the situation before the war," Baqaei said in a televised interview Sunday night.
He added that the strait cannot be "misused" by those who have committed aggression against Iran, which will require "a mechanism that "fully" respects Iran's sovereign rights.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited the White House last week, did not immediately comment on Trump's post.
Israel has been on high alert over the past week because of threats of renewed strikes from Iran.
"If Iran fires toward the state of Israel, we are prepared to attack it," Israel's energy and infrastructure minister, Eli Cohen, said in an interview Sunday with Galatz Army Radio.
Cohen added that "there is very close defense and intelligence coordination between Israel and the U.S."
Baqaei, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Sunday that "any assumption that threats and media pressure can make Iran retreat from its principled positions is inconsistent with past experience," and that the country will continue to act based on what it serves its best interests.
Raz Zimmt of the Institute for National Security Studies, an independent think tank in Israel, said military options would do little to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
"The Iranians may pay a heavy price, but from their perspective, the price they will exact is at least equal, so it won't help," Zimmt said, adding that "what could be done via airstrikes has already been done."
Trump's comments came after reports that Israel and the U.S. were set to carry out attacks on Iran's energy infrastructure.
In response, Iranian security officials told state media that the country would retaliate by striking Israeli and U.S. energy facilities in the region, raising concerns in Persian Gulf countries that host American troops and from energy companies.
Last week, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen launched strikes on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities and announced a blockade of Saudi ships in the Red Sea.
Other U.S. allies, like Kuwait, are reeling from successive Iranian attacks on vital desalination infrastructure.
In a call Sunday, Saudi Arabia's crown prince and de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, urged Trump to de-escalate tensions in the region and to prevent the conflict from spiraling out of control, a statement carried by the Saudi state news agency said.
U.S. missions in the Middle East had urged Americans to "consider departing, or be prepared to depart should there be escalation."
Trump's tone Saturday was in contrast to heightened rhetoric in the past few days.
On Wednesday, he threatened to hit Iran "hard" after U.S. forces intercepted an Iranian ballistic missile attack targeting American military assets in the region.
Since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran on Feb.
28, Trump has been mired in an unpopular war with no end in sight.
At least 18 U.S. service members have been killed, including four in recently renewed hostilities after Trump declared last month that a U.S.-Iran ceasefire was "over."
More than 600 American service members have been wounded.
Iranian Deputy Health Minister Ali Jafarian has said that more 3,500 have been killed in Iran since the war started in late February, among them 264 women and 224 people under 18.
The Washington Post could not independently verify this figure.
Since the collapse of the ceasefire, the U.S. has ramped up its strikes on Iran, and Tehran has escalated attacks on countries where U.S. troops are stationed, including Kuwait and Jordan.
In a televised Cabinet meeting Friday at Camp David, Trump called Iran's leaders "very dishonorable to deal with" and said they were losing the war.
"Just in case you read incorrect stories, they're doing very, very poorly.
They're having a hard time," Trump said.
Federal authorities also say critical infrastructure systems in the U.S. could be at risk after at least seven states reported cyberattacks that interrupted their water or wastewater operations last week.
The warning comes after U.S. intelligence officials said Iran was probably behind a coordinated cyberattack on more than 30 municipal water systems in Minnesota.
Trump has blamed Minnesota's government, not Iran, for that attack.
The FBI did not respond to a request for comment Friday about whether it believed Iran was responsible, saying the agency and others were "fully engaged to protect critical infrastructure."
Ellen Nakashima and Pranshu Verma contributed to this report.
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