The United States and Iran agreed to a conditional two-week ceasefire on Tuesday evening following a last-minute diplomatic intervention led by Pakistan, averting an ultimatum by Donald Trump that had warned Iran to surrender or face widespread destruction.
The ceasefire announcement came less than two hours before the US president’s self-imposed 8pm Eastern Time deadline to launch strikes on Iran’s power plants and bridges — a move that legal scholars, international officials and the Pope had cautioned could amount to war crimes.
Hours earlier, Trump had written on Truth Social: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” Reports indicated that B-52 bombers were already en route to Iran before the agreement was reached.
By Tuesday evening, however, Trump confirmed that a ceasefire had been brokered through Pakistan, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif requesting a two-week pause to “allow diplomacy to run its course”.
In a post, Trump stated that “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 added that the pause could allow both sides to negotiate a 10-point proposal put forward by Tehran, potentially enabling an armistice to be “finalized and consummated”.
“This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE!” he continued. “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.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed Tehran’s acceptance of the ceasefire shortly after the announcement.
“For a period of two weeks, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via coordinating with Iran’s Armed Forces,” he said.
The sudden shift allows Washington to step back from a conflict that has lasted five weeks, with little indication that Tehran was prepared to surrender or relinquish control over the Strait of Hormuz — a critical route for roughly one-fifth of global energy supplies, where shipping traffic had slowed significantly.
Israel is also expected to observe the two-week ceasefire, according to reports citing an Israeli official, with the truce set to take effect once the blockade of the strait is lifted.
Trump had previously dismissed Iran’s 10-point proposal as “not good enough”, though he has set and extended deadlines throughout the conflict.
Earlier on Tuesday, he described the hours ahead as potentially “one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World” unless “something revolutionarily wonderful” occurred, involving “less radicalized minds” within Iran’s leadership.
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir-Saeid Iravani, condemned Trump’s threats, calling them “incitement to war crimes – and potentially genocide”.
Addressing the UN Security Council, he said: “Iran will not stand idle in the face of such egregious war crimes. It will exercise, without hesitation, its inherent right of self-defence and will take immediate and proportionate reciprocal measures.”
Through his spokesperson, UN Secretary-General António Guterres reiterated on Monday that attacks on civilian infrastructure are prohibited under international law. Trump, however, said the same day he was “not at all” concerned about being labelled a war criminal.
In the hours leading up to the deadline, Israel carried out strikes on Iranian infrastructure. Iranian state media reported that a rail bridge in the central city of Kashan was among the first targets hit on Tuesday, with two people killed.
Israel’s military said it had launched “a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting dozens of infrastructure sites”.
Additional strikes were reported near Karaj, northwest of Tehran, where a bridge over a railway line was hit. Power outages were also reported in the area following attacks on a substation and transmission lines. Bridges near Qom and Tabriz were also said to have been targeted.
The United States separately struck 50 military targets on Iran’s Kharg Island, home to its main oil export terminal. In response, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had launched attacks on Saudi Arabia’s Jubail petrochemical complex, retaliating for earlier strikes on an Iranian facility.
