A US official said Sunday that Washington and Tehran agreed to halt attacks after new tit-for-tat strikes strained their interim deal, with the sides planning to renew talks aimed at ending the Middle East war. The exchanges have underscored the fragility of a Pakistan-brokered agreement to end the conflict that has killed thousands and snarled the flow of oil shipments through the vital Strait of Hormuz. Although a ceasefire took effect in April, sporadic violence has flared up in the Gulf region, with traffic in the strait serving as a regular flashpoint. "Technical talks are slated to continue on all areas of the MOU," a US official told AFP in an email late Sunday, referring to the memorandum of understanding struck between Washington and Tehran. "Both sides will stand down for now and vessels can move freely" in and around the Strait of Hormuz, the official added. Iran has not immediately commented on the US statement, and the US official did not confirm a US media report that talks would resume Tuesday in Qatar. Tehran has insisted on controlling passage through the vital strait, through which about a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas travel in peacetime. It did not have that control before the war. Iran's top diplomat warned Sunday that any attempt by ships to bypass its preferred route through Hormuz would "increase tensions" in the Middle East. Tehran's enforcement of its control has sparked repeated flare-ups with Washington, the latest of which came early Sunday, when US Central Command said it had attacked 10 Iranian military targets over "continued Iranian aggression against commercial shipping.” Iran said it retaliated with strikes against US bases in Kuwait and Bahrain. Both Kuwait and Bahrain denounced the Iranian attacks. Iran presently insists ships transiting the strait pass through a corridor near its own shores, though this week dozens of vessels have travelled along the opposite side of the waterway, hugging the Omani coast. "Any attempt to adopt new or separate arrangements compared to what is underway by the Islamic Republic of Iran, will only lead to more complicated situations and delays in the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, and will increase the tensions," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said.
