Trump backs off Iran ultimatum and agrees to two-week ceasefire

Donald Trump abruptly stepped back from his latest ultimatum to Iran on Tuesday, agreeing to a two-week ceasefire less than two hours before his deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face sweeping attacks on civilian infrastructure. The sudden shift marked a dramatic retreat from the apocalyptic language he had used earlier in the day and opened a narrow window for diplomacy instead.

According to Reuters, the ceasefire was brokered with Pakistan acting as mediator, and Iran said talks with the United States would begin on Friday in Islamabad. Iranian state television cast the development as a humiliating US retreat, claiming Trump had accepted Tehran’s terms for ending the war.

Trump said the arrangement would depend on Iran agreeing to pause its blockade of oil and gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway that typically carries around one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.

In a post on Truth Social, he described the move as a “double sided CEASEFIRE”, adding that US military goals had already been met and that a longer-term peace deal with Iran and for the wider Middle East was now within reach. He also said Iran had put forward a 10-point proposal that could serve as a workable basis for negotiations, and that he expected an agreement to be finalised during the two-week pause.

The reversal came after a day of heightened alarm. Earlier, Trump had threatened to destroy every bridge and power plant in Iran unless Tehran yielded by his 8pm EDT deadline. As the clock ran down, US and Israeli strikes intensified, hitting bridges, an airport and a petrochemical plant, while US forces also struck targets on Kharg Island, home to Iran’s main oil export terminal.

Iran responded with threats of its own, saying it would no longer hold back from targeting infrastructure in Gulf states. Tehran also said it had carried out fresh strikes on a ship in the Gulf and on a major Saudi petrochemical complex. Reuters further reported explosions heard in Doha late on Tuesday night, underlining how quickly the confrontation had spread beyond the initial battleground.

Two White House officials said that Israel had also agreed to the two-week ceasefire and would suspend its bombing campaign. Yet the truce appeared shaky almost immediately, as the Israeli military said minutes later that it had detected missiles launched from Iran towards Israel.

The war is now in its sixth week and has killed more than 5,000 people across nearly a dozen countries, including more than 1,600 civilians in Iran, according to figures cited by Reuters from government sources and human rights groups.

The closure of Hormuz has also driven oil prices sharply higher, deepening fears of a wider economic shock and raising the risk of a global downturn.

For Trump, the ceasefire announcement also comes at a politically sensitive moment. His approval ratings had fallen to their lowest level yet as the US midterm campaign gathered pace, with many Americans opposed to the war and increasingly frustrated by rising fuel costs.