U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said the pause in U.S. airstrikes on Iran over the weekend was meant to give diplomatic talks room to succeed, while warning that the military option remains fully available if negotiations fail.
“It’s giving diplomacy some space. It’s giving diplomacy a little bit of time,” Waltz told Margaret Brennan, according to the official CBS News transcript of the July 26 broadcast of Face the Nation. “Of course, the president tried diplomacy last year. He’s tried it this year. He is a president of peace. He is giving diplomacy a chance. We’ll see over the next coming days. But make no mistake, assets, additional military assets are moving into the region. They should believe the president. The regime should believe the president when he says they’re locked and loaded, and where all options are on the table.”
Brennan noted that U.S. forces halted strikes on Iran on Friday and Saturday after 13 consecutive nights of bombing, as talks between Oman and Iran over reopening the Strait of Hormuz appeared to show signs of progress. CENTCOM said in an official release that it completed its 12th consecutive night of strikes on July 22, but issued no announcement of further strikes in the days that followed. CENTCOM separately confirmed that its naval blockade of Iranian ports “remains in full effect,” saying it had redirected 12 commercial vessels and disabled two others that did not comply with its directions as of July 25.
Axios later reported that CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper had advised the White House and Pentagon to pause the bombing campaign, telling officials the strikes had “significantly degraded” Iran’s ability to target shipping in the strait and that most designated targets had already been destroyed, with further gains requiring a much larger escalation to reach the roughly 20 percent of remaining objectives under Operation Epic Fury. Gen. Dan Caine separately warned that continuing the pace of strikes risked depleting the stockpile of air defense interceptors needed to protect American personnel and regional allies from retaliation.
Pressed on how long the pause would last, Waltz said the decision remained Trump’s alone. “I’m not going to take that option off the table for the president. That’s up to him. Let’s see how these conversations go,” Waltz said, adding credit to Oman for its role. “I have to give Oman some credit there. They have been engaging in a helpful way.”
Brennan asked whether Trump had reached a decision on the “massive attack, bigger than ever before” he had described to Axios earlier in the week. “I wouldn’t advertise that, Margaret,” Waltz said, confirming only that a senior-level meeting had taken place Friday. “He’ll make that decision in good time.”
Waltz separately rejected reporting, including from CBS, that the U.S. cannot sustain its rate of precision munitions expenditure and faces a shortage of interceptors. “I also want to address this nonsense that somehow we don’t have the assets that we need,” Waltz said. “Not only do we have what we need in theater, there’s more moving into theater.” He argued that coverage of American stockpiles omitted a comparison to Iran’s own diminished capacity, saying “I wish they would also talk about the massive degradation of Iranian munitions, that has far less than what they started with, not only in their industrial base, but what they have on hand.”
Waltz cited new CBS polling during the segment showing 67 percent of Americans want the conflict to end now, and that only 35 percent approve of Trump’s handling of the war. He argued the underlying goals retained broad public support even if confidence in the war’s execution had fallen. “I think your poll showed that the American people support those goals,” Waltz said. “By the way, also important in there, I don’t think anyone else sees a better plan.”
Waltz also addressed criticism of the U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear agreement signed the prior week, rejecting the idea that the deal provides Saudi Arabia a path to enrich uranium. “There is no enrichment technology being provided to the Saudis,” Waltz said. “They will be buying civil nuclear reactors from the United States with full inspections in place and no enrichment happening on Saudi soil.” The agreement builds on a Joint Declaration signed in November 2025 during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to the White House, which the administration described in an official fact sheet as completing negotiations on civil nuclear cooperation. Pressed on reporting that the deal includes a clause allowing a future study into Saudi enrichment if mutually agreed by both parties, Waltz confirmed the provision but characterized it as “some open-ended discussion” rather than a current authorization.
Brennan asked whether changing the deal’s terms a day after signing, when Trump added the new condition that Saudi Arabia join the Abraham Accords, undermined U.S. credibility in future negotiations. Waltz said the addition should not have surprised anyone given Trump’s long-standing advocacy for Gulf states joining the accords, though Brennan noted the condition was not part of the agreement as originally signed.
Waltz addressed reports that Russia has provided Iran with satellite surveillance imagery of U.S. and Gulf military installations, following comments from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky alleging the activity dated to early July. Waltz did not directly confirm or deny the claim, saying only that Trump had personally warned both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping against assisting Iran. “I’ll just let the president’s statement this week stand on its own, that he has spoken to both Putin and Xi about this and has put both on notice, frankly, that they should not be assisting and that bad things will happen if they are,” Waltz said.
The pause in strikes followed the war’s most intense stretch since the collapse of an April ceasefire, with the conflict approaching its five-month mark since fighting began Feb. 28.
Waltz’s tweet sharing the clip drew directly from the exchange, writing that Trump “is a president of peace” who “is giving diplomacy a chance,” while reiterating that “additional military assets are moving into the region” regardless of the diplomatic track’s outcome.
Neither the White House nor Iranian officials have publicly confirmed a timeline for resuming or permanently halting the airstrikes as of Waltz’s appearance.