Trump Backs Down on Threat to Destroy Iran, Agrees 2-Week Ceasefire

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

President Donald Trump in the late minutes of last night announced that he had agreed to a proposal for a two-week ceasefire with Iran and the immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, stepping back from a self-imposed deadline to launch sweeping new strikes he warned could devastate the country.

In a social media post just hours before his deadline, Trump said he would “suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks” following his conversations with Pakistan’s leadership and what he described as meaningful progress towards a broader agreement with Iran.

“This will be a double sided ceasefire!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “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 that the U.S. has received a 10 point proposal from Iran that he believes “is a workable basis on which to negotiate.”

The announcement marked a sudden de-escalation after a day of extraordinary threats in which Trump warned that “a whole civilisation will die tonight” if Iran did not agree to his demands.

The tentative ceasefire hinges on Iran’s agreement to immediately and fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes. Since the early weeks of the war, Iran has effectively choked off traffic through the passage, triggering a global energy shock that has sent fuel prices soaring and rattled financial markets.

Trump had previously suggested the United States could rapidly destroy Iran’s bridges, power plants, and other infrastructure—a campaign that military and legal experts warned could devastate civilian life in a nation of roughly 85 million people and risk violating international law, a TIME report said.

The decision to walk back his threat underscored a familiar pattern in Trump’s presidency: issuing maximalist threats, only to recalibrate as the risks of carrying them out come into sharper focus. It also reflected the competing pressures bearing down on a White House that has spent weeks edging closer to a wider war while searching for a way out of it.

TIME previously reported that Trump has grown increasingly eager to find an off-ramp. Polling has shown declining public support for the war, while rising fuel prices and market volatility have alarmed Republican lawmakers ahead of the midterm elections. At the same time, the President has been reluctant to end the conflict without being able to claim a decisive victory.

In a post on his social media site, Trump said Iran could agree “to the complete, immediate, and safe opening of the Strait of Hormuz” and said that he’d then “suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks.”

Trump had previously threatened Tuesday that a “whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran fails to meet his latest deadline to strike a deal that includes reopening the strait through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported during peacetime. But since the war began, Trump has repeatedly backed off of deadlines just before they expire.

The president said in his social media post that Iran has 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,” Trump said.

In its reaction, the Iranian side said it accepted Trump’s peace overture and agreed to safe passage via the Strait of Hormuz for two weeks as well as a pause in military operations.

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi posted the Islamic Republic’s response on X and said Iran would cease its military operations if it was not attacked.

“On behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran, I express gratitude and appreciation for my dear brothers HE Prime Minister of Pakistan Sharif and HE Field Marshal Munir for their tireless efforts to end the war in the region.

“In response to the brotherly request of PM Sharif in his tweet, and considering the request by the U.S. for negotiations based on its 15-point proposal as well as announcement by POTUS about acceptance of the general framework of Iran’s 10-point proposal as a basis for negotiations, I hereby declare on behalf of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council: If attacks against Iran are halted, our Powerful Armed Forces will cease their defensive operations.

“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 wrote.

The two-week pause is likely to lead to further comprehensive negotiations between the US and Iran and a possible peace summit in Islamabad.

Also, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said yesterday that it has accepted a two-week ceasefire in the war, signaling a conditional pause after Trump pulled back from threats to expand strikes to bridges, power plants and other civilian targets.

The council said Iran would enter negotiations with the United States in Islamabad beginning Friday, while emphasising that the ceasefire “does not signify the termination of the war.”

“Our hands remain upon the trigger, and should the slightest error be committed by the enemy, it shall be met with full force,” the statement said.

Earlier, UN Secretary General, António Guterres and Pope Leo XIV condemned US President Donald Trump’s threat that “a whole civilisation will die tonight” unless Iran agreed a deal to end the war and unblock the Strait of Hormuz.

The UN secretary general said he was “deeply troubled by statements suggesting that entire civilian populations or civilisations may be made to bear the consequences of political and military decisions”, his spokesperson told reporters in New York.

“There is no military objective that justifies the wholesale destruction of a society’s infrastructure or the deliberate infliction of suffering on civilian populations,” he added.

Guterres called for stepped-up diplomatic efforts to find a peaceful solution and said his personal envoy, Jean Arnault, was travelling to the region to support them.

The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, meanwhile said he deplored “the tirade of incendiary rhetoric being used in the Middle East war by all parties”, calling it “sickening”.

“Under international law, deliberately attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure is a war crime,” he warned. “Anyone responsible for international crimes must be held to account by a competent court.”

For his part, Pope Leo, the first American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, told journalists outside his residence in Castel Gandolfo: “Today… there was this threat against all the people of Iran, and this is truly unacceptable.”

“There are certainly questions of international law, but much more than that, it is a moral question,” he said. He also called all parties to the conflict to “come back to the table” for negotiations.