US and Iran agree to 2-week ceasefire as Trump seizes diplomatic offramp

TEHRAN, Iran — U.S. President Donald Trump pulled back on his threats to launch devastating strikes on Iran late Tuesday less than two hours before the deadline he set for Tehran to capitulate or else a “whole civilization will die.”

Trump said he would hold off on his threatened attacks on Iranian bridges, power plants and other civilian targets, subject to Tehran agreeing to a two-week ceasefire and reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil typically is shipped. He also said Iran proposed a “workable” 10-point peace plan that could help end the war the U.S. and Israel launched Feb. 28.

Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Associated Press

President Donald Trump speaks with reporters Monday at the White House in Washington. 

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said it accepted a two-week ceasefire and would negotiate with the United States in Islamabad starting Friday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said passage through the strait would be allowed for the next two weeks under Iranian military management. It wasn’t immediately clear whether that meant Iran would loosen its chokehold on the waterway.

In a social media post, Trump said he would suspend attacks on Iran for two weeks provided Tehran agreed “to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING” of the strait.

Iran’s demands for ending the war include control of the strait, the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from the region, the lifting of sanctions and the release of its frozen assets. The demands indicate an effort to remake both the geopolitical order in the Middle East and the global oil trade.

Even as the ceasefire was announced, missile alerts continued in the United Arab Emirates, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait early Wednesday, hinting at the chaos surrounding the diplomatic moves. The U.S. military halted all offensive operations against Iran but continues defensive actions, an official said on condition of anonymity to describe sensitive military operations.

Since the war began, Trump repeatedly backed off deadlines just before they expire.

He said he came to the decision Tuesday “based on conversations” with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Gen. Asim Munir, Pakistan’s powerful army chief. Sharif, in a social media post hours earlier, urged Trump to extend his deadline by two weeks to allow diplomacy to advance. He used the same post to ask Iran to open the strait for two weeks.

In his social media post, Trump said Iran presented “a workable basis on which to negotiate.”

“Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated,” he said.

Israel also agreed to the terms of the two-week ceasefire agreement, according to a White House official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Sharif said the ceasefire extends to Israel and Hezbollah halting fighting in Lebanon.

But there are concerns in Israel about the agreement, according to a person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity, noting Israel would like to achieve more.

Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium still is buried at enrichment sites. The program was one of the main issues Israel and the U.S. cited in launching the war.

Francisco Seco, Associated Press

Bystanders watch from a distance as rescue teams and first responders work at the site of a strike that, according to a security official at the scene, destroyed half of the Khorasaniha Synagogue and nearby residential buildings Tuesday in Tehran, Iran. 

Earlier Trump threats

Trump’s threat didn’t seem to account for potential harm to civilians, prompting Democrats in Congress, some United Nations officials and scholars in military law to say such strikes would violate international law.

In Rome, Pope Leo XIV said Tuesday the threats were “truly unacceptable” and such attacks would violate international law.

Tehran’s representative at the U.N., Amir-Saeid Iravani, said the threats “constitute incitement to war crimes and potentially genocide” and Iran would “take immediate and proportionate reciprocal measures” if Trump launched devastating strikes.

The U.S. and Israel battered Iran with attacks targeting its military capabilities, leadership and nuclear program. Iran responded with strikes on Israel and Gulf Arab neighbors, causing regional chaos and outsized economic and political shock.

Before the deadline, airstrikes hit two bridges and a train station, and the U.S. hit military infrastructure on Kharg Island, a key hub for Iranian oil production. It wasn’t clear if the strikes were linked to Trump’s threats to widen the civilian target list. At least two of the targets were connected to Iran’s rail network, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli warplanes struck bridges and railways in Iran.

Toby Melville, REUTERS

A United States Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bomber loaded with munitions flies from RAF Fairford airbase in Fairford, Gloucestershire, Britain. 

Tehran previously rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal by Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators, saying it wants a permanent end to the war.

Iran’s president said 14 million people, including himself, volunteered to fight.

Earlier, Iranian official Alireza Rahimi issued a video message calling on “all young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors” to form human chains around power plants.

Iranians formed human chains in the past around nuclear sites at times of heightened tensions with the West. State media posted videos online that showed hundreds of flag-waving people amassed at two bridges and at a power plant hundreds of miles from Tehran, though it was not clear how widespread the practice was.

“They’re not allowed to do that,” Trump said in a phone call with NBC News.

A general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard general warned that Iran would “deprive the U.S. and its allies of the region’s oil and gas for years” and expand its attacks across the Gulf region if Trump were to carry out his threat.

Emilio Morenatti, Associated Press

Displaced people wait to receive donated food Monday beside the tents they use as shelters after fleeing Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon, in Beirut, Lebanon. 

More than 1,900 people were killed in Iran since the war began, but the government has not updated the toll for days.

In Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, more than 1,500 people were killed and more than 1 million people displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers died there.

In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people were killed, while 23 were reported dead in Israel, and 13 U.S. service members were killed.