Trump Rejects Iran’s 7-Day Ceasefire Proposal, Expects to Resume Strikes After Midterms

The pause-and-resume framing ties the timing of military operations to a domestic political calendar, which is the detail that matters most here: it signals that escalation risk is being managed around the midterms rather than resolved. For markets, that means the current lull may be read as temporary rather than de-escalatory, leaving energy and shipping-risk sentiment sensitive to any confirmation that strikes resume. Whether the ceasefire track reopens after the vote is the open question.