President Donald Trump said Saturday night he is holding off on new strikes against Iran, posting that "the perimeters of a deal has been agreed to" after more than five months of intermittent U.S.-Israeli military operations against Tehran.
Iranian retaliation during that stretch killed at least three U.S. service members stationed in Jordan and one in Iraq, according to CBS News .
The timing matters because it is the clearest evidence yet that a presidential statement about a pause and an actual halt in hostilities are not the same thing.
Reading the two governments' statements side by side, the honest account is that a framework exists on paper in Washington's telling, while Tehran's public rhetoric has not yet caught up to it, if it ever will.
Naval Base Kitsap, a short drive from downtown Bremerton, tells a related story.
Trump says the U.S. is holding off on new strikes against Iran after 'the perimeters of a deal' were agreed, but tankers were hit near Hormuz hours later. The Pentagon's own destroyer shortage reaches into Washington: Naval Station Everett's warships and Bremerton's dry-docked carrier are part of the same strained fleet.