US and Iran agree to two-week truce after Trump pulls back on threats

The United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire late on Tuesday, barely an hour before US President Donald Trump's deadline for Iran to capitulate was set to expire.

Trump pulled back on earlier apocalyptic threats that a "whole civilisation will die” if Tehran failed to reach a deal, holding off on attacks on Iranian bridges and power plants, a war crime against sites that are primarily of civilian usage.

"Subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks," Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said it has accepted the ceasefire and that it would negotiate with the United States in Islamabad beginning Friday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said passage through the Strait of Hormuz would be allowed under Iranian military management. It wasn’t immediately clear whether that meant Iran would completely loosen its chokehold on the waterway.

Neither Iran nor the United States said when the ceasefire would begin, and attacks took place in Israel, Iran and across the Gulf region early Wednesday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said it had agreed to the ceasefire but added it 'did not include Lebanon'. According to the prime minister of Pakistan, which has been mediating talks, the ceasefire calls for Israel and Hezbollah to halt fighting in Lebanon.

In the version of its 10-point ceasefire plan released in Farsi, Iran included the phrase “acceptance of enrichment” for its nuclear programme, but for reasons that remain unclear, that phrase was missing in English versions shared by Iranian diplomats to journalists.

Trump initially had said Iran proposed a “workable” 10-point plan to end the war, but he later called it fraudulent, without elaborating. Trump has said ending Iran’s nuclear programme entirely was a key point of the war.