Iran War Live Updates: Trump Extends Cease-Fire With Iran
The pause in hostilities had been set to expire within hours. The president said Pakistan, which is trying to mediate an end to the war, requested he hold off any attacks.
President Trump said he was extending a cease-fire with Iran on Tuesday just hours before it was set to expire. The announcement came after Vice President JD Vance’s trip to Pakistan for a second round of peace negotiations was put on hold because, according to a U.S. official, Tehran had failed to respond to American positions.
Mr. Trump, posting on social media, said he had acted after receiving a request from Pakistan, which is trying to mediate an end to the war, to hold off any attacks. He also pointed to what he said were serious fractures in the Iranian government.
The extended cease-fire, he said, will stay in effect until Iran’s “leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal.”
The first response from Iran came from an adviser to Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the influential speaker of the Iranian Parliament — and it was dismissive. “The extension of the cease-fire by Donald Trump has no meaning,” the adviser, Mahdi Mohammadi, wrote on social media.
Mr. Trump’s announcement was a marked departure from his comments earlier in the day, when he told CNBC that if Iran did not agree to U.S. demands, “I expect to be bombing.”
But even as he extended the cease-fire, the president said the U.S. blockade on ships heading to and from Iranian ports would continue. Iran has demanded that U.S. forces allow its vessels free passage, and on Tuesday Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, called it “an act of war.”
Even if the two sides return to the negotiating table, many sticking points remain, chiefly on Iran’s nuclear program and on the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic conduit for oil and gas. The threat of Iranian attacks has throttled shipping traffic through the strait, and the U.S. Navy says it has forced 28 ships to turn around.
Here’s what else we are covering:
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Energy: Oil prices approached $100 a barrel and stocks faded on Tuesday as uncertainty clouded the possibility of peace talks.
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Lebanon: Even though a separate 10-day cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon has mostly held since it went into effect last week, Israel on Tuesday blamed Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militant group, of firing rockets toward Israeli troops in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military has kept up repeated strikes since the truce. Hezbollah later confirmed firing on Israel, saying it was in response to cease-fire violations.
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Tanker: The U.S. military stopped and boarded a sanctioned ship in the Indo-Pacific region that was carrying oil from Iran overnight, the Pentagon said on Tuesday.
REACTIONS :
Secretary General António Guterres of the United Nations on Tuesday welcomed the extension of the cease-fire between Iran and the United States.
“This is an important step toward de-escalation and creating critical space for diplomacy and confidence-building between Iran and the United States,” said Guterres in a statement. “We encourage all parties to build on this momentum, refrain from actions that could undermine the cease-fire, and engage constructively in negotiations to reach a sustainable and lasting resolution.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakista thenked Trump
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan, who has assiduously courted the White House and sought to mediate peace talks between the United States and Iran, thanked President Trump for “graciously accepting our request to extend the ceasefire to allow ongoing diplomatic efforts to take their course.”
Response of Iran :
In the first response from Iran to the cease-fire extension announcement, an adviser to Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the influential the speaker of the Iranian Parliament, dismissed it. “The extension of the cease-fire by Donald Trump has no meaning. The losing side cannot set the terms,” Mahdi Mohammadi wrote in a social media post. He equated the U.S. naval blockade with bombing.