President Donald Trump announced Tuesday evening that the U.S. had reached a two-week ceasefire agreement with Iran ahead of a looming deadline, averting what the president previously described as an attack that would lead to the death of a “whole civilization.”
“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate.”
Trump — who said the ceasefire was subject to Iran opening the Strait of Hormuz — added that “almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran,” but he said the two-week ceasefire period “will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated.”
The deal came just hours after Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif urged Trump to extend the deadline for Iran by two weeks via a post on X. Sharif wrote that “diplomatic efforts for peaceful settlement of the ongoing war in the Middle East are progressing steadily, strongly and powerfully with the potential to lead to substantive results in near future.”
The president threatened in a Tuesday morning social media post that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if Iran did not reach a deal with the U.S. He had previously said opening the Strait of Hormuz is a “very big priority” in the negotiations.
The president’s escalation in rhetoric sparked worries that the U.S. or Israel could use nuclear weapons against Iran, but international leaders had signaled hope that the U.S. and Iran would reach an 11th-hour deal ahead of the 8 p.m. ET deadline.
Democrats were quick to condemn the threat, with House Democratic leadership calling for the House to return “immediately and vote to end this reckless war of choice in the Middle East before Donald Trump plunges our country into World War III” in a joint statement. Republican lawmakers were largely silent on Trump’s remarks, though, hoping the Trump administration would avert the worst-case scenario with a last-minute off-ramp.
Some of America’s closest allies, from Europe to the Gulf States, were cut out of the White House’s thinking on Tuesday, much as they have been since the start of the war more than a month ago. They spent much of the day waiting to hear what would happen by Trump’s 8 p.m. deadline for Iran to open the strait.
Trump also threatened to strike Iran’s civilian infrastructure — including bridges, power plants and desalination plants — if Iran did not move to reopen the strait, elevating warnings from experts that the U.S. could violate international law in the ongoing war. POLITICO previously reported that the Pentagon was expanding a list of acceptable targets in Iran to include energy sites that serve both civilians and the military, giving the administration a possible way out of war crime accusations.
Iran’s closure of the strait, which facilitates the transit of roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply, has sent fuel prices skyrocketing across Europe and the U.S., and Trump has repeatedly chided the U.S.’ NATO allies for not offering their assistance in reopening the passage.
He said last week that the war would not cease until the strait was reopened to traffic, adding that the U.S. would be “blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!” until then.
Despite his escalating threats, Trump insisted on Monday that Iranian officials were “negotiating, I think, in good faith” with the U.S., although he did not specify with whom the U.S. was negotiating.
The president also said he did not worry that his threats to bomb Iranian civilian infrastructure could amount to war crimes, adding, “I hope I don’t have to do it.”
The American-Israeli bombing campaign has, for the most part, spared the country’s supply of electricity and fuel. But as frustrations grow at the White House over Iran’s refusal to capitulate, the potential targets have increased.
American and Israeli pilots have started conducting so-called dynamic strikes, which involve hunting for targets of opportunity instead of preplanned strikes. In one night alone, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said late last month, the U.S. conducted more than 200 of them.
Many of these strikes have taken place on sites the U.S. had previously hit but Iranians have quickly rebuilt. The latest comes as the Pentagon starts to run out of strategically important targets to hit in Iran.
American troops have bombed more than 13,000 ground targets, according to U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East.
Trump, at the annual White House Easter event Monday, dismissed concerns about whether bombing civilian sites amounted to war crimes. “You know what’s a war crime? Having a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “Allowing a sick country, with demented leadership, [to] have a nuclear weapon — that’s a war crime.”
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