President Trump declared on Friday that he had not yet authorised a large-scale military operation against Iran, telling reporters in the Oval Office that Tehran was “getting more and more serious” in ongoing diplomacy. His remarks followed reports of a White House meeting with senior advisers to discuss escalation options, and a day after he confirmed he was considering a “massive attack”.

Viewed from Washington, the administration is pursuing a twin-track approach: continuing airstrikes that have hit Iranian military targets for 13 consecutive nights, while keeping a channel for negotiations open. Trump publicly laid out two paths — “a military exit where we just keep going” with heavier force, or “a smarter strategy that you make a deal”. He underscored US preparedness, saying “we’re locked and loaded and ready to go,” but added that dialogue would continue. This language was interpreted as a deliberate signal of restraint tied to a perceived shift in Iran’s posture.

Tehran’s leadership has publicly rejected “bullying and coercion”, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisting Iran would not yield to threats. Simultaneously, state media reported retaliatory strikes by the Revolutionary Guards on US facilities in Bahrain, Jordan, and Kuwait, and claimed an attack on an Amazon data centre in Bahrain, though no independent verification emerged. These moves suggest a strategy of calibrated escalation even as direct talks with Washington are acknowledged.

The conflict’s widening scope was underlined by Saudi Arabia’s airstrikes on the Houthi-held port of Hodeidah in Yemen, following Houthi attacks on Saudi vessels in the Red Sea and a declared maritime blockade on the kingdom. The Saudi-led coalition described its response as “decisive and effective”, signalling a hardening front across the Gulf’s energy chokepoints alongside Iran’s own blocking of the Strait of Hormuz.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi, meeting his Iranian counterpart in Kyrgyzstan, called for a resumption of the collapsed ceasefire and implementation of an earlier memorandum of understanding, urging that “the door to negotiations, once opened, should not be closed”. Trump separately voiced trust in assurances from Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin that neither Russia nor China is arming Iran, despite Western intelligence assessments to the contrary. With the war approaching its fifth month and US midterm elections looming, the next known step is a planned White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, which is expected to influence Washington’s calculus.