At 5 p.m. Washington time, speculation was rife that a deal between the United States and Iran was in the works. Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif pleaded for President Trump to extend his 8 p.m. Tuesday deadline—before he destroyed every bridge and power plant in Iran—by another two weeks in order to give diplomacy more time to work. Yet the New York Times reported that Iranian officials cut off direct contact with their American counterparts. And the White House wasn’t offering definitive answers about whether Trump was leaning toward escalation or a ceasefire.
Finally, less than an hour and a half before the deadline, Trump made his announcement: the U.S. would suspend bombing operations against Iran for two weeks if Tehran agreed to re-open the Strait of Hormuz. ‘We received a ten point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate,’ Trump wrote. ‘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.’ The Iranians confirmed the news less than an hour later, with Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi claiming that Trump agreed to the general framework of Iran’s ten-point proposal.
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