WASHINGTON/ISLAMABAD, Apr 22: US President Donald Trump has indefinitely extended the ceasefire with Iran at the request of mediator Pakistan, saying the move was aimed at giving Tehran’s fractured leadership time to come up with a unified proposal to end the seven-week war.
The dramatic announcement came just hours before the two-week ceasefire announced on April 8 was set to expire, and effectively delayed the planned visit of a US delegation led by Vice President JD Vance to Islamabad for peace talks with Iranian interlocutors.
Vance and US special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were scheduled to travel to Islamabad on Tuesday, but the White House said the delegation’s “trip to Pakistan will not be happening today (Tuesday).”
“Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our attack on the country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump said in a statement on Tuesday.
However, Trump made it clear that the US will refrain from attacking Iran only until its leadership presents a unified proposal for negotiations. He said the economic blockade of Iran’s ports will remain in place.
The US President said he has therefore “directed the military to continue the blockade”.
Slamming the US, Iranian foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said blockading Iranian ports is an “act of war and thus a violation of the ceasefire”.
“Striking a commercial vessel and taking its crew hostage is an even greater violation. Iran knows how to neutralise restrictions, how to defend its interests, and how to resist bullying,” he said in a social media post.
On Tuesday, the US said its forces boarded an oil tanker previously sanctioned for smuggling Iranian crude in Asia. The Pentagon said that US forces boarded the M/T Tifani without incident.
The US military did not disclose the location of the boarding, though ship-tracking data showed the vessel in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia on Tuesday. The Pentagon added that international waters are not a refuge for sanctioned vessels.
Trump’s ceasefire announcement capped days of intense diplomatic activity among officials in Washington, Islamabad and Tehran aimed at producing a draft proposal acceptable to all sides.
Witkoff and Kushner were due to leave Miami for Islamabad on Tuesday morning, but were instead asked to join “additional meetings” at the White House. Vance, who was also scheduled to travel to Pakistan, joined the deliberations in Washington.
The decision to extend the ceasefire marked a significant shift in Trump’s tone. Earlier on Tuesday, he said that if a deal was not reached by Wednesday, he expected to “be bombing, because that is a better attitude to go in with.” He added that the military was “raring to go.”
Trump did not refer to the conflict or the negotiations with Iran during his only public appearance of the day, when he addressed NCAA collegiate national champions at the White House on Tuesday afternoon.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked Trump for extending the ceasefire with Iran and expressed hope that both sides would be able to “conclude a comprehensive peace deal” to end the conflict.
“On my personal behalf and on behalf of Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, I sincerely thank President Trump for graciously accepting our request to extend the ceasefire to allow ongoing diplomatic efforts to take their course,” he said in a social media post.
Sharif said with the “trust and confidence reposed in (it), Pakistan shall continue its earnest efforts for a negotiated settlement of the conflict.”
“I sincerely hope that both sides will continue to observe the ceasefire and be able to conclude a comprehensive ‘Peace Deal’ during the second round of talks scheduled at Islamabad for a permanent end to the conflict,” he added.
Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced sanctions on 14 individuals, entities and aircraft based in Iran, Turkiye and the United Arab Emirates for their alleged involvement in procuring or transporting weapons or weapons components on behalf of the Iranian regime.
“The Iranian regime must be held accountable for its extortion of global energy markets and indiscriminate targeting of civilians with missiles and drones,” Bessent said.
He warned that Iran’s Kharg Island storage facilities could reach capacity within days, potentially forcing fragile oil wells to shut down.
“Constraining Iran’s maritime trade directly targets the regime’s primary revenue lifelines,” he said.
The US imposed the blockade to pressure Tehran into ending its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping lane through which about 20 per cent of the world’s natural gas and crude oil transits in peacetime.
Iran’s grip on the strait has pushed oil prices sharply higher. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was trading close to USD 95 per barrel on Tuesday, up more than 30 per cent since February 28, the day Israel and the US launched strikes on Iran, triggering the war.
Pakistan had urged an extension of the truce due to uncertainty surrounding the second round of talks, which are still expected to be held later this week.
However, there was still no clarity on the date of the next round of talks. Pakistan has taken elaborate security measures, including deploying more than 10,000 security personnel, in preparation for the proposed negotiations.
The first round of US-Iran talks held on April 11 and 12 failed to produce a breakthrough, prompting a flurry of diplomatic efforts by host Pakistan to cool tensions and revive hopes for another round of dialogue.
Amid the uncertainty over the talks, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday urged the two sides to extend the two-week ceasefire and give diplomacy a chance.
The Iran war began on February 28 with US-Israeli strikes. (PTI)
