The United States and Iran agree to a two‑week ceasefire just before Trump’s deadline

The risk of the war with Iran escalating to unimaginable levels has been avoided — at least for now. The United States and Iran have accepted Pakistan’s proposal, and there will be a two‑week ceasefire.

U.S. President Donald Trump announced the suspension of U.S. airstrikes and his threat to annihilate Iran in exchange for Tehran reopening the Strait of Hormuz — a key route for the international transit of hydrocarbons from the Gulf — during that period,

Shortly afterward, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, confirmed that his country will also hold its fire and allow safe passage for ships along its coast for two weeks. The news has been welcomed by the markets, and the price of a barrel of oil has fallen below $100.

Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said the ceasefire was “effective immediately,” and applies “everywhere, including Lebanon,” where Israel has been fighting a parallel war with Hezbollah that it intended to continue. Even so, the Israeli government later stated that the ceasefire would not affect its offensive against the Lebanese militia. Sharif invited delegations from Washington and Tehran to meet next Friday in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, “to further negotiate for a conclusive agreement to settle all disputes.”

News of the ceasefire came barely an hour and a half before the expiration of Trump’s existing deadline — 8 p.m. in Washington — in which he threatened to commit war crimes by destroying Iranian civilian infrastructure and wiping out “a whole civilization.”

In a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump wrote: “Subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks.” He said that his decision came after talks with Sharif and the Pakistani Field Marshal Asim Munir, who asked him to hold off on the attack he had planned to launch against Iran on Tuesday night.

Shortly afterward, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council issued a triumphalist statement confirming that it would hold negotiations with the U.S. in Islamabad for two weeks, while stressing that this “does not mean the end of the war.” “Iran will only accept the end of the war when, in addition to accepting the principles outlined in the 10-point plan, the details are finalized in negotiations,” the statement said.

In his post, Trump described the 10-point plan as “a workable basis on which to negotiate.” Iranian state television presented Trump’s decision to extend his deadline as a “humiliating retreat” by the U.S. president.

The position of Israel — which launched the war against Iran alongside the United States on February 28 and wanted it to continue — remains uncertain. According to the mediator, the ceasefire applies to Israel as well, including its invasion of Lebanon, where its forces have entered the south, displaced more than a million people, and begun demolishing towns. It also applies to Tehran’s allies who had joined the conflict in its support, such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and pro‑Iranian militias in Iraq.

A senior Israeli official quoted by public television said, under anonymity, that Benjamin Netanyahu’s government learned of the announcement with surprise and “at the last moment, when everything seemed settled.” Later, Netanyahu’s office rejected the idea that Lebanon was included in the ceasefire. Minutes after Trump’s announcement, a ballistic‑missile launch from Iran triggered alarms in several parts of Israel.

The two-week ceasefire comes after more than a month of open war in which the United States says it has struck more than 13,000 targets linked to Iran’s military capabilities — especially its air‑defense systems, as well as its missile and drone launchers — while Tehran has responded with more than a thousand missiles, 600 of them aimed at Israeli territory, and nearly 4,000 unmanned attack vehicles directed at military bases and infrastructure belonging to Washington’s allies in the Gulf.

Trump presented the ceasefire as a compromise in which both sides give ground — and therefore both sides win. He also maintained that the United States has already achieved the military objectives it sought in its joint offensive with Israel. “This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE! The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East,” he said in his post on Truth Social.

Trump’s reference to Iran’s “workable” 10‑point proposal is also key: it signals that the Iranian plan — rather than the U.S. 15‑point plan — is the starting point for the talks to be held over the next two weeks. It is a diplomatic victory for Tehran.

“Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated. On behalf of the United States of America, as President, and also representing the Countries of the Middle East, it is an Honor to have this Longterm problem close to resolution,” he said.

On Tuesday, Trump had warned, in another message on Truth Social, that “a whole civilization will die” if Iran did not comply with his demands.

His remark had drawn condemnation from Pope Leo himself, who called the warning “truly unacceptable.” Within the United States, more than 50 Democratic lawmakers had publicly voiced support for invoking the 25th Amendment to the Constitution, which allows a president to be removed from office if the vice president declares him incapacitated and two‑thirds of both chambers of Congress confirm it.

Ultimatum

The final deadline Trump set before unleashing “hell” on Iran was the fifth he had announced for negotiations, and the fourth time he had postponed his deadline. On March 21, Trump warned for the first time that he would bomb the adversary’s electrical infrastructure 48 hours later, on March 23, in retaliation for Tehran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz. But on the night of March 22, he announced that he was delaying the action by five days, until Friday, March 27, to allow more time for talks.

That week, Trump extended the deadline again — this time by 10 days, until Monday, April 6. In the meantime, he repeatedly shifted his position on the importance of reopening the strait. Over the past week, he mentioned several times, both in social‑media posts and in a national address last Wednesday, his intention to end the war at any moment, withdraw U.S. troops, and leave the resumption of traffic through Hormuz in the hands of the countries that use it.

Over the weekend, as U.S. forces searched inside Iran for the gunner of a downed F‑15 fighter jet, the president again invoked the deadline and threatened to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Age.” On Sunday, he extended the deadline once more — by just over 24 hours — pushing it to Tuesday. On Monday, as the countdown ticked away, he declared the deadline final until Tuesday, when he changed his mind yet again.

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