The risk of an escalation to unthinkable levels in the war against Iran was avoided, at least for the moment. The US and Iran have accepted Pakistan’s proposal and there will be a two-week ceasefire. Donald Trump has announced the suspension of US bombing and his threat to annihilate the country in exchange for Tehran opening the Strait of Hormuz during that time. Shortly after, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, confirmed that his country will not open fire either and will allow safe passage through Hormuz for two weeks. The Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, has highlighted two important elements: the cessation of hostilities has “immediate effect” and applies “everywhere, including Lebanon”, where Israel fights a parallel war with Hezbollah that it intended to continue. Sharif invites the delegations from Washington and Tehran to meet next Friday in Islamabad “to continue negotiating a definitive agreement that resolves all disputes.”
The extension has been announced just an hour and a half before the current ultimatum expired, at 8:00 p.m. Washington time (2:00 a.m. Wednesday, Spanish peninsular time), by which, destroying Iranian civil infrastructure, and ending “an entire civilization.”
In a message on his social network, Truth, Trump wrote: “Subject to the Islamic Republic giving its approval to the complete, immediate and safe opening of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack against Iran for a period of two weeks.” His decision, he points out, came after conversations with Sharif and the Chief of the General Staff, Asim Munir, who asked him to hold back the attack he planned to launch against Iran on Tuesday night.
Shortly after, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council issued a triumphant statement confirming that it “will hold negotiations with the American side in Islamabad for two weeks,” but clarifies that “it does not imply the end of the war.” “Iran will only accept the end of the conflict when, considering the acceptance of the principles contemplated in the 10-point plan, the details are finalized in the negotiations,” he points out in relation to Tehran’s proposal, which Trump defined in his message as “a viable basis on which to negotiate.” Iranian state television has presented the extension as a “humiliating withdrawal” by the American president.
Israel, which started the war together with the United States on February 28 and wanted it to continue, remains officially silent, in the middle of the Jewish holiday of Pesach. According to the mediator, the ceasefire involves him, as well as his invasion of Lebanon, where his troops have invaded the south, forced the displacement of more than a million people and. Also to Tehran’s allies who had been joining the conflict in its support, such as Hezbollah, in Lebanon; the Houthis, in Yemen; and pro-Iran militias in Iraq.
A senior Israeli official quoted by public television has indicated under anonymity that he only received information about the announcement with surprise and “at the last moment, when everything seemed closed.” Minutes after Trump’s announcement, a ballistic missile shot from Iran has set off alarm bells in different parts of Israel.
Sharif had publicly asked Trump a few hours before the deadline to give room for diplomatic channels. In exchange, he offered, Tehran would open the Strait of Hormuz during that time as a show of goodwill.
Trump has presented his announcement as a compromise in which both give in – and, therefore, both win. He also maintains that the United States has already met the military objectives it sought in its joint offensive with Israel. “This is going to be a two-way ceasefire! The reason for doing this is that we have already met and exceeded all of our military objectives, and we are very advanced in a definitive long-term peace agreement with Iran and peace in the Middle East.”
“Almost all points of friction in the past have been agreed upon between the United States and Iran, but this two-week deadline will allow the agreement to be finalized and fulfilled. On behalf of the United States, as president, and also representing the countries of the Middle East, it is an honor to have brought this long-standing problem close to a solution,” the president notes.
This Tuesday the American president had threatened, in a message also in Truth, if Tehran did not capitulate.
His comment had sparked the rejection of Pope Leo himself, who described the warning as “unacceptable.” Within the United States, more than fifty Democratic legislators had publicly spoken out in favor of applying the Twenty-fifth 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 Houses of Congress endorse it.
Ultimatum
The new deadline represents the fifth time the president has declared to negotiate with Iran, and the fourth time he has postponed his ultimatum. On March 21, Trump announced for the first time that he was going to do so 48 hours later, on March 23, in retaliation for the closure of the Strait of Hormuz imposed by Tehran. But on the night of the 22nd he announced that he was postponing his action for five days, until Friday the 27th, to give time for negotiation.
That week he postponed his ultimatum again, this time for ten days: until Monday, April 6. Meanwhile, he mused several times about the importance of opening the strait. During the past week he mentioned on several occasions, both in his messages on networks and in a speech to the nation last Wednesday, his intention to end the war at any moment, withdraw troops and put the resumption of traffic through Hormuz in charge of the user countries.
Over the weekend, and while US forces searched on Iranian soil for the gunner of a downed F-15 fighter, the president once again recalled the deadline and remembered that bombing Iran to take it to the “Stone Age” was still his intention.
On Sunday he extended the ultimatum again, just over 24 hours, to take it to this Tuesday. On Monday, when the countdown was running, he declared today’s deadline final. Until this Tuesday he changed his mind again.
