India, July 28 -- Mediators have achieved progress in efforts to get the United States and Iran back to negotiations and avert an all-out war in the West Asia, two regional officials said on Monday, with a pause in attacks coming after a period of rapidly escalating tensions.

The comments came after neither the US nor Iran reported carrying out any attacks for three straight days - a respite after about two weeks of sustained bombardments that had led to increasing fears of a return to all-out war.

The two regional officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive regional talks, said mediators led by Qatar and Pakistan were working to bridge the gap between Washington and Tehran to return to an interim ceasefire d...