New Delhi, July 10 -- DOHA - The guns went quiet on Thursday, but nobody was celebrating. After two days of strikes between the United States and Iran, both sides have halted military operations in what officials described as an "uneasy calm," even as the diplomatic machinery that might prevent a return to fighting remained broken and the mediators who put it together scrambled to reassemble it.

A US official told Al Jazeera on Thursday that Washington "remains committed to negotiations with Tehran and technical talks continue." The phrasing was careful to the point of near-meaninglessness - commitment to talks is not a commitment to peace - but it was the first formal signal from either side that the exchange of strikes had stopped, at ...