Trump agrees to suspend attacks on Iran for 2 weeks; Tehran says talks will begin on April 10

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WASHINGTON - US President Donald Trump on April 7 said he was suspending the bombing of Iran for two weeks but that Tehran must reopen the key Strait of Hormuz, barely an hour before his apocalyptic deadline to destroy the country was set to expire.

After more than five weeks of blistering attacks on Iran by the United States and Israel, Mr Trump said he had accepted a proposal mediated by Pakistan to extend his deadline but he again pushed on the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway vital for the world’s oil.

Mr Trump said he had spoken to Pakistan’s leaders who “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,” Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

“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 long-term peace with Iran, and peace in the Middle East,” he added.

He said Iran had sent a 10-point plan to the US that he called “workable” for negotiations.

The Islamic republic said in a statement released alongside a list of the 10 points published by state media that the plan would require “continued Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz, acceptance of enrichment, lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions”.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the US, Iran and their allies had agreed to a ceasefire “everywhere”, including in Lebanon, following mediation by his government to stop weeks of fighting.

“I am pleased to announce that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere, effective immediately,” he posted on social media platform X.

The price of oil quickly fell sharply on Mr Trump’s remarks. Oil costs had soared since the war, putting heavy political pressure on the US leader.

Responding to Mr Trump’s announcement, Iran said it would guarantee safe passage for maritime traffic through the vital Strait of Hormuz for two weeks, announcing that the pause would be used for talks with the US on ending the war, starting on April 10 in Islamabad.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X: “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.”

The Islamic republic’s Supreme National Security Council said in a separate statement that the negotiations were set to last for two weeks but could be “extended by mutual agreement of the parties”.

Iran had previously said it was ready for any eventuality and defiantly refused to reopen the strait, which it had closed in retaliation for the attack launched on Feb 28.

Mr Trump had set a deadline of 8pm Washington time on April 7 (8am on April 8, Singapore time), after an earlier extension in a threat to destroy all power plants and bridges across the country of 90 million people – a war crime against sites that are primarily of civilian usage.

Earlier on April 7, he had made threats that were shocking even by his own provocative standards, which brought warnings that he was encouraging genocide – potentially one day leading to war crimes charges against US service members who comply.

“A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” he had written.

The rhetoric was an escalation from a profanity-laden post two days earlier, on Easter Sunday.

Pope Leo XIV said “this threat against all the people of Iran” was “truly unacceptable”.

Pakistani mediation

Pakistan, which is playing a key mediating role in the Middle East conflict, said it had proposed the two-week extension of Mr Trump’s deadline and that Iran should also reopen the Strait of Hormuz for the same period as a “goodwill gesture”.

Mr Sharif said: “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 US and Israel struck key infrastructure, even before Mr Trump’s deadline, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirming attacks on railways and bridges that he said were “used by the Revolutionary Guards”.

The Israeli military also offered a rare statement of regret after it acknowledged damaging a synagogue in Tehran, saying it had been targeting a senior Iranian commander.

Iran, run by Shi’ite Muslim clerics, is home to around 100 synagogues for its historic Jewish minority.

Infrastructure attacks reported by Iranian authorities on April 7 included a US-Israeli strike on a bridge outside the city of Qom and another on a rail bridge in central Iran that killed two people.

Death ‘not a joke’

University student Metanat, whose classmate was killed two weeks ago in an attack, told AFP before Mr Trump’s suspension of attacks that she felt “terrified and so should everyone else in the country”.

The 27-year-old, who declined to give her last name, said that as far as Mr Trump’s ultimatums were concerned, “some people think they are a joke”, but “death is not a joke”.

State media published photos purporting to show groups of Iranians forming human chains to protect power plants.

The show of patriotism in the face of attacks came several months after Iran’s cleric-run government cracked down violently on mass protests, with rights groups reporting thousands of deaths.

The US and Israel said they attacked Iran to degrade its military capacity. Trump has alleged that Iran was near building an atomic bomb, an assertion not backed by the UN nuclear watchdog and most observers.

At the UN Security Council, Russia and China vetoed a resolution on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a text already diluted to remove the green light Gulf states had sought to use force to protect the key shipping lane.

Apart from the infrastructure attacks, strikes were reported on Kharg Island, a critical hub for the Iranian oil industry, according to Iran’s Mehr news agency, although US media said the attacks were against military targets.

Iran has responded to the war by striking Gulf Arab states that host US troops. Israel, in turn, has launched a major offensive into Lebanon, vowing to control land from which Iranian-linked Hezbollah has fired rockets.

‘Extremely sick person’

Before announcing his decision to call off the strikes at the 11th hour, Mr Trump had left the door open for a last-minute agreement on Truth Social.

“Now that we have complete and total regime change, where different, smarter and less radicalised minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, who knows? We will find out tonight,” he wrote.

The President’s sabre rattling has appalled critics.

“This is an extremely sick person,” top US Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer posted on X.

Former vice-president Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic rival in the 2024 US election, called Mr Trump’s threats “abhorrent” and accused the Republican of planning war crimes.

Even some political figures once close to Mr Trump are calling for his removal through the US Constitution’s 25th Amendment, which provides for a transfer of power if a president is unable to govern, particularly in the event of illness.

Former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X: “25TH Amendment!!! Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilisation. This is evil and madness.”

Mr Anthony Scaramucci, a financier who briefly worked in Mr Trump’s first White House administration, urged Republicans to “wake up” because the President “is calling for a nuclear strike. Seek his removal immediately”.

Team Trump denied Vice-President J.D. Vance’s remarks contained any suggestion of a nuclear attack.

“Literally nothing @VP said here ‘implies’ this, you absolute buffoons,” the White House said on X.

The post was in response to one from an account associated with Ms Harris, which said Mr Vance had implied that Mr Trump “might use nuclear weapons”.

Mr Vance had earlier offered his own threatening assessment of what may follow, warning Tehran that US forces have tools they “so far haven’t decided to use” against the Islamic republic. AFP