WORLDNEWS HEADLINE- US/ISRAEL v. IRAN WAR | WASHINGTON/DUBAI/CAIRO: US, Iran agree to 2-week truce

WASHINGTON/DUBAI/CAIRO – US President Donald Trump agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran yesterday, less than two hours before his deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face devastating attacks on its civilian infrastructure.

Trump’s announcement represented an abrupt turnaround from his extraordinary warning earlier in the day, when he said “a whole civilization will die tonight” if his demands were not met.

Pakistan’s military chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif helped mediate the ceasefire.

Sharif said in a post on X he had invited Iranian and US delegations to meet in Islamabad on Friday.

Trump said the last-minute deal was subject to Iran’s agreement to pause its blockade of oil and gas supplies through the strait, which typically handles about one-fifth of global oil shipments.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in a statement Tehran would cease counter-attacks and provide safe passage through the waterway, if attacks against it stop.

“This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE!” 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 longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East.”

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council portrayed the deal as a victory over the US, claiming Trump had accepted Iran’s conditions for ending hostilities.

Trump told the French news agency AFP that it was a “total and complete victory.”

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“Total and complete victory. 100 percent. No question about it,” Trump said when asked if he was claiming victory with the ceasefire.

He later said on Truth Social: “A big day for World Peace! Iran wants it to happen, they’ve had enough! Likewise, so has everyone else!”

Iran could start the reconstruction process and the US would help in traffic buildup in the Strait of Hormuz, he added.

The war, now in its sixth week, has claimed more than 5,000 lives in nearly a dozen countries, including more than 1,600 civilians in Iran, according to tallies from government sources and human rights groups.

A source briefed on the talks expressed wariness about the two-week ceasefire holding, saying the US side believed Iran might be trying to buy time. It was a “trust-building exercise,” the source said.

Israel backs ceasefire

Israel supports President Trump’s decision to suspend strikes against Iran for two weeks, but the ceasefire does not include Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said yesterday.

The premier’s office said Israel backed the US move, provided Tehran immediately opened the strait and stopped attacks against the United States, Israel and countries in the region.

Two White House officials confirmed earlier that Israel had agreed to the two-week ceasefire and to suspend its bombing campaign on Iran, while Prime Minister Sharif said in a post on X that the agreement included a cessation of Israel’s campaign in Lebanon.

The Israeli offensive in Lebanon has killed at least 1,500 people and displaced 1.2 million others. Lebanon was pulled into the war in the Middle East when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in solidarity with Tehran, two days after Iran was attacked by Israel and the US. Hezbollah’s attack prompted a new Israeli ground and air offensive.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s Islamic Resistance also said it would suspend operations in Iraq and across the region for two weeks.

More than an hour after Trump’s announcement, the Israeli military said it had identified missiles launched from Iran and explosions from intercepted missiles could be heard in Tel Aviv. Gulf countries including Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also issued near-simultaneous alerts and activated air defenses.

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Israeli first responders were providing medical treatment to two 15-year-old males who were in mild condition after blast injuries in the southern town of Tel Sheva, according to a spokesperson from the MDA ambulance service.

Israeli media said its military was striking back at launch sites in Iran.

‘Workable basis’

Trump, who has issued a series of threats in recent weeks only to back away, said progress between the two sides had prompted him to agree to the ceasefire. He said Iran had presented a 10-point proposal that was a “workable basis” for negotiations and that he expected an agreement to be “finalized and consummated” during the two-week window.

Trump later said to AFP: “We have a 15-point transaction, of which most of those things have been agreed on. We’ll see what happens. We’ll see if it gets there.”

Markets enjoyed a relief rally as oil prices dropped, stocks surged and the dollar weakened in Asian trade, bolstered by hope that trade through the strait could resume.

Global leaders also welcomed the ceasefire, with the Australian government saying that “the longer the war goes on, the more significant the impact on the global economy will be, and the greater the human cost.”

By agreeing to the ceasefire, Trump may be showing an awareness that the war – which is deeply unpopular in many parts of the United States – is dragging on longer than he expected, analysts said.

“President Trump has clearly noticed that escalating against the Iranian regime is not going to lead to their collapse in the short- to medium-term, as he may perhaps have hoped,” said Jessica Genauer, academic director of the Public Policy Institute at Australia’s University of New South Wales.

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“In the last few days we’ve seen President Trump wanting to find a route towards a way that the US military can back out of the war with Iran, but also frame that as a kind of victory for the US.”

Trump’s announcement capped a whirlwind day that was dominated by his threat to destroy every bridge and power plant in Iran unless Tehran reopened the strait. That unnerved world leaders, rattled global financial and energy markets and drew widespread condemnation, including criticism from the head of the United Nations and Pope Leo.

Some international law experts have said attacking civilian infrastructure indiscriminately could constitute a war crime.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sharply increased oil prices, escalating the chances of a global economic downturn or even recession. The US Energy Information Administration warned earlier on Tuesday that fuel prices could continue to rise for months even after the strait reopened.

With the US midterm election campaign ramping up, Trump’s approval ratings have hit their lowest level ever, leaving his Republican Party at risk of losing its narrow majorities in Congress. Polls show sizable majorities of Americans are opposed to the war and frustrated by the rising cost of gasoline.

As the clock ticked down to Trump’s 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT) deadline, US and Israeli strikes on Iran had intensified, hitting railway and road bridges, an airport and a petrochemical plant. US forces attacked targets on Kharg Island, home to Iran’s main oil export terminal.