President Trump backed down Tuesday from a threat to wipe out the entirety of Iranian civilization, saying he agreed to a two-week cease-fire deal with Iran in hopes the countries will be able to finalize a long-term peace agreement.
“We have already met and exceeded all Military objectives,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, “and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East.”
Trump said that the agreement was “subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz.”
Iran said it had achieved its war aims and signaled its intent to continue control over the strait, the world’s most important energy-shipping lane.
Trump posted his statement about 90 minutes before a deadline he set for Tehran to cede to his demands and more than 10 hours after he threatened to annihilate the country. The president’s threat to wipe out Iran sparked a backlash in Washington, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle criticizing his rhetoric.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday morning. The president added that “maybe something revolutionary will happen” because of the many killings of Iranian leaders, which he considers regime change.
The U.S. halted all offensive operations in Iran following Trump’s Tuesday evening announcement, according to a senior U.S. official.
“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,” Trump posted on social media. The U.S. has struck more than 13,000 targets over 39 days of war.
Trump had threatened to strike all of Tehran’s power plants and bridges. Under international law, the military is allowed to strike civilian power plants and other key infrastructure only if they contribute to a military operation and civilian harm is minimized.
Trump in his post on Truth Social said the U.S. had received a 10-point proposal from Iran that was a “workable basis on which to negotiate.” He said that “almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to” and that the “two week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated.”
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council reiterated Tehran’s own plan for a peace deal, which includes “the regulated passage through the Strait of Hormuz under the coordination of the Armed Forces of Iran, thereby conferring upon Iran a unique economic and geopolitical standing.”
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said 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.”
Trump had said the two-week cease-fire was contingent on Iran reopening the strait.
Prior to the war, more than 100 ships passed freely each day through the strait. Iranian officials in recent days have indicated they want to make permanent their influence over the strait, putting forward proposals for charging transit fees similar to those charged for passage through the Suez Canal. According to mediators, it wasn’t clear if Iran would abandon charging ships or give access to all ships seeking to cross.
The U.S. acknowledged Iran’s terms for the situation in the strait, with the White House and Trump reposting the Iranian foreign minister’s statement on social media.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said that negotiations with the U.S. will start Friday in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital. The council said the two-week cease-fire could be extended if both sides agree.
Pakistan helped broker the cease-fire negotiations, and its prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, said the cease-fire deal applied to fighting “everywhere including Lebanon.”
But the office of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the cease-fire doesn’t apply to Lebanon, which Israel has invaded in a bid to beat back the Tehran-backed militia Hezbollah.
Netanyahu’s office said it backed Trump’s decision to suspend strikes for negotiations. It also said the U.S. had told Israel that it is committed to ensuring “that Iran no longer poses a nuclear, missile and terror threat to America, Israel, Iran’s Arab neighbors and the world.”
Israel was continuing to strike Iran despite the announcement of a cease-fire, an Israeli security official said. After the cease-fire was announced, Iran fired several waves of missiles at Israel.
Gulf countries including Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates also reported missile attacks after Trump announced the cease-fire deal.
Republicans in Congress praised the president’s announcement, but Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close ally of the president, raised some red flags about the cease-fire deal.
“As to an Iranian ten point proposal to end the war, I look forward to reviewing it at the appropriate time and its submission to Congress for a vote,” Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said on X.
“I want to reaffirm that from my point of view, every ounce of the approximately 900 lbs. of highly enriched uranium has to be controlled by the U.S. and removed from Iran to prevent them in the future from having a dirty bomb or returning to the enrichment business,” he wrote.
Sen. Rick Scott (R., Fla.) said: “This is a strong first step toward holding Iran accountable and what happens when you have a leader who puts peace through strength over chaos and weak appeasement policies. This is Iran’s chance to do the right thing.”
Democrats in Congress said they were relieved that the president announced a conditional cease-fire, but they condemned his war effort.
“It appears Trump just agreed to give Iran control of the Strait of Hormuz, a history-changing win for Iran. The level of incompetence is both stunning and heartbreaking,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.).
Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic Senate Minority leader, said: “I’m glad Trump backed off and is desperately searching for any sort of exit ramp from his ridiculous bluster.”
The Trump threats had drawn rebukes from across the political spectrum. Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.), a firm ally of the president, said he didn’t support the U.S. bombing Iranian civilian infrastructure.
“I think it would be a huge mistake. I mean, he loses me if he attacks civilian targets. Whatever we do has to be within the laws of warfare,” Johnson said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
More Democrats are calling for the 25th Amendment to be invoked to remove Trump from office. The 25th Amendment can be initiated by the vice president and a majority of cabinet members should they determine the president is unfit to discharge his or her powers and duties in office.
As of early Tuesday afternoon, more than two dozen lawmakers had made the demand. While Democrats unsuccessfully tried to remove Trump from office in his first term, the party had largely shied away from a similar push until now.
The House Democratic leadership called for lawmakers to return to Washington immediately to hold a vote to end the Iran war. The statement, signed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries from New York and others, said Trump is “completely unhinged” and that a vote is necessary to stop the president before he “plunges the country into World War III.”
The House is out of session until Monday. A bipartisan War Powers Resolution opposing the war in Iran previously failed by a 212-219 vote in the House in March, as lawmakers largely voted along party lines.
Influential right-wing podcaster Tucker Carlson, long a critic of U.S. military operations overseas, called on U.S. officials to resist any attempt by Trump to launch mass attacks that would kill Iranian civilians.
Carlson, in comments on his podcast, also called Trump’s Easter Sunday comments to open the “f—in’ ” Hormuz Strait “evil” and said they were a mockery of Christianity and Islam. Trump responded that Carlson is “a low IQ person that has absolutely no idea what’s going on.”
Far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, conservative commentator Candace Owens and former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.), a Trump ally who has become a fierce critic, also spoke out against Trump’s rhetoric. Greene called for the president’s removal.
“25TH AMENDMENT!!! Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization,” Greene said on social media.
In Iran, people held rallies to celebrate the cease-fire in the central city of Isfahan, in Kerman in the eastern part of the country and in a suburb of Tehran, according to residents and state media.
A resident of Isfahan who opposes Iran’s government expressed disappointment that Trump pulled back from his threat to escalate bombings even though regime change hasn’t happened in Iran.
In January, Trump said that “help is on its way” for antiregime protesters but ultimately didn’t intervene during a government crackdown that killed thousands of Iranians.
Write to Alexander Ward at [email protected], Summer Said at [email protected] and Alyssa Lukpat at [email protected]
