Trump Extends US-Iran Ceasefire at Pakistan’s Request

The announcement comes as last-minute ceasefire talks between the United States and Iran appear uncertain and the two-week ceasefire is set to expire on Wednesday.

Earlier, the White House suspended Vice President J.D. Vance’s planned visit to Islamabad for the second round of talks because Tehran opposed further talks, at least for now.

In his Truth Social post announcing the extension of the ceasefire, Trump also said that the US military would continue to blockade Iranian ports.

As last-minute ceasefire talks between the United States and Iran appear uncertain, both countries have warned they are prepared to resume hostilities if there is no deal.

Pakistani leaders, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, worked hard late Tuesday to get both sides to agree to a second round of ceasefire talks, according to two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Baghaei told Iranian state television that “no final decision” had been made on whether to participate due to “unacceptable actions” by the United States, apparently referring to the recent blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

Vance has suspended his return trip to Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, while Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner are expected in Washington on Tuesday afternoon for consultations on how to proceed, said a U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration talks.

The official warned that Trump could change his mind about negotiating with Iran at any time and refrained from predicting what would happen if the current ceasefire ends without another meeting. Trump has scant options for resuming airstrikes, the official said.

Before announcing the extension of the ceasefire, Trump had warned that “a lot of bombs will start going off” if a deal is not reached before it expires on Wednesday. Iran’s chief negotiator said that Tehran has “new cards on the battlefield that have not yet been revealed.”

A senior commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has threatened to destroy the region’s oil industry if war with the United States resumes. “If the southern neighbors allow the enemy to use their facilities to attack Iran, they should say goodbye to oil production in the Middle East region,” General Majid Mousavi told an Iranian news site.

Control of the Strait of Hormuz key to talks Iran’s envoy to the United Nations said on Tuesday that Tehran had “received some indications” that it was ready to end the US embargo on Iranian ports. The USA did not make any public statement regarding the lifting of the blockade.

Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said that lifting the blockade remains a condition for Iran to rejoin peace talks. Once that happens, “I think the next round of negotiations will happen,” he said.

The United States imposed the blockade to pressure Tehran to end its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane through which 20% of the world’s natural gas and crude oil passes in peacetime.

Iran’s dominance in the strait caused oil prices to rise. Brent crude, the international standard, traded near $95 a barrel on Tuesday, up more than 30% from Feb. 28, when Israel and the United States attacked Iran to start the war.

Before the war began, the Strait of Hormuz was completely open to international shipping. Trump demanded that ships be allowed to pass unhindered again.

Over the weekend, Iran said it had received new offers from Washington, but also claimed that a large gap remained between the parties. Issues that derailed the latest round of talks included Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, its regional proxies and the strait.

US says its forces boarded sanctioned oil tanker The United States on Tuesday said its forces boarded an oil tanker previously sanctioned for smuggling Iranian crude in Asia. The Pentagon said in a social media post that US forces landed on M/T Tifani “without incident”.

The U.S. military did not say where the ship boarded, but ship tracking data showed the Tifani was located in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia on Tuesday. The Pentagon statement stated that “international waters are not a haven for sanctioned ships.”

The US military seized an Iranian container ship on Sunday, the first response to the blockade. Iran’s joint military command described the boarding of the gunboat as an act of piracy and a violation of the ceasefire.

Pakistan hopes talks will progress Pakistani officials expressed confidence that Iran will send a delegation to resume the highest-level talks between the United States and Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The first rounds on 11 and 12 April ended without an agreement.

Pakistan said Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar met the US ambassador in Islamabad on Tuesday to call for an extension of the ceasefire. Dar also met with the ambassador of China, Iran’s important trading partner.

Security has been tightened in Pakistan’s capital, where authorities have deployed thousands of personnel and increased patrols on routes to the airport.

Israel jails soldiers who destroyed statue of Jesus in Lebanon The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it had sentenced two soldiers who destroyed a statue of Jesus in Lebanon to 30 days in prison and suspended them from combat duty. Footage of an Israeli soldier smashing the statue’s head with a sledgehammer emerged over the weekend, sparking widespread condemnation.

Israel said one of the punished soldiers smashed the statue to the ground. The other filmed the destruction. The Israeli army said it had replaced the statue.

Meanwhile, historic diplomatic talks between Israel and Lebanon will resume in Washington on Thursday, an Israeli, Lebanese and a US official said. All three spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss behind-the-scenes negotiations.

Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors met last week for direct diplomatic talks for the first time in decades. Israel says the talks are aimed at disarming Hezbollah and reaching a peace agreement with Lebanon.

A 10-day ceasefire began on Friday in Lebanon, where clashes broke out between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, two days after the United States and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran to start the war. More than 2,290 people have died in the conflict in Lebanon.

According to officials, at least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran since the war began. Additionally, 23 people died in Israel and more than a dozen in the Gulf Arab countries. 15 Israeli soldiers were killed in Lebanon and 13 US soldiers in the region.

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Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Lee reported from Washington. Associated Press journalists Michelle Price, Aamer Madhani and Darlene Superville are in Washington; Samy Magdy in Cairo; David Rising and Huizhong Wu in Bangkok; Sam McNeil in Brussels; Julia Frankel in New York; Bill Barrow in Atlanta, Edith Lederer at the United Nations and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this story.