New Delhi, July 27 -- DUBAI - The guns fell quiet on Friday, but not because either side had won.

After thirteen nights of American airstrikes on Iranian nuclear and military facilities, the United States paused its campaign without advance warning, leaving the Strait of Hormuz still closed and oil tankers stranded from Fujairah to the Gulf of Oman. Iran's army shortly after confirmed it had halted its own retaliatory operations. Neither government has officially called it a ceasefire, and neither has promised to hold.

The pause came as an Axios report surfaced a classified warning from General Michael Caine, the top US military commander in the region, to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and the White House: American stockpiles of Patrio...