UNITED States President Donald Trump has agreed to suspend his planned bombing of Iran for two weeks, following his threat that “a whole civilization will die tonight” if Tehran did not comply with his demands.
On Tuesday night, within hours of the planned attack, Trump took to his platform Truth Social to announce he had reversed course.
He credited Pakistan for mediating the settlement, but warned it came with conditions, namely that Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“Based on conversations with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, of Pakistan, and wherein they requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran, and 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,” Trump wrote.
The message was posted online at 6:32pm US Eastern time (22:32 GMT), just under one and a half hours before Trump’s 8pm (00:00 GMT) deadline for the attack.
Shortly after Trump’s message, Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi confirmed that a tentative agreement had been reached.
“If attacks against Iran are halted, our Powerful Armed Forces will cease their defensive operations,” Araghchi wrote.
“For a period of two weeks, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via coordination with Iran’s Armed Forces and with due consideration of technical limitations.”
Araghchi likewise thanked Pakistan for its last-minute appeal to suspend the US bombing campaign. Iran’s Supreme National Security Council also hinted in a separate statement that the ceasefire could be extended beyond its initial two weeks if negotiations proceed favourably.
Further talks are expected to take place in Islamabad over the coming weeks.
In the lead-up to the Thursday evening announcement, there had been speculation that Trump might extend the deadline, as he has multiple times in recent weeks.
But tensions had mushroomed on Tuesday as the deadline inched closer and after Trump himself posted a menacing message on social media that morning.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” Trump had written. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
He added that the evening deadline would mark “one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World”.
Trump had previously threatened to blow up power plants, bridges and other civilian infrastructure, actions that many legal experts said would amount to a war crime.
In his Tuesday evening message, the US president once again claimed victory over Iran and said that Tehran had delivered a feasible ceasefire proposal.
“This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE,” Trump wrote.
“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. We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate.”
Trump explained that the next two weeks would be spent finalising the agreement with Iran. But he voiced optimism that any past disagreements had been resolved.
“Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran,” Trump said.
“It is an Honor to have this Longterm problem close to resolution,” he added.
Trump’s announcement was initially met with scepticism and confusion on the ground in Tehran, where some questioned how much of the conflict would be paused under the ceasefire.
“It’s not clear, at least not to me, whether he’s suspending what is already going on since the beginning of the war entirely, or he’s extending the deadline for that ultimate destruction of the power plants,” Al Jazeera correspondent Mohamed Vall said from Tehran.
The war has been raging for more than five weeks, since Israel and the US launched a joint military offensive against Iran on February 28.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have argued that the offensive was necessary to eliminate Iran as a regional threat and prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
But legal experts have described the offensive as an unprovoked attack, in violation of international law.
Already, nearly 2,076 people have been killed in Iran since the start of the war. Another 28 people have been killed in nearby Gulf states.
The US, meanwhile, has lost 13 military members, while 26 people have been killed in Israel.