Trump announces he is extending the ceasefire with Iran, but maintains the blockade in the Strait of Hormuz
The president says he is maintaining the truce to give the Iranians time to present a proposal for an agreement, although Tehran did not seem willing to sit down and negotiate.
WashingtonAfter suspending Vice President JD Vance's trip to Islamabad, Donald Trump has just announced on Truth Social that he is extending the ceasefire with Iran at the request of Pakistani Marshal Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Once again, Pakistan comes to the rescue of the Republican. The US president assures that he will maintain the truce until Iranian leaders "can present a unified [agreement] proposal", as "Iran's government is severely fractured". Even so, Trump assures that he will maintain the naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz. The ayatollahs have been demanding that the Americans lift the military cordon as a condition for being able to sit down to negotiate again.
"Therefore, I have ordered our military forces to continue the blockade and, in all other respects, remain prepared and capable; likewise, I will extend the ceasefire until their proposal is presented and talks conclude, one way or another," he wrote this Tuesday afternoon.
In the last few hours, uncertainty surrounding the talks and the ceasefire had reached absurd levels. There wasn't even a clear time for when the truce was supposed to expire. Trump had told Bloomberg this Monday that the truce would expire on Wednesday night, Washington time. But this Tuesday morning, Pakistan's Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Attaulah Tarar, said the expiration time was 4:50 a.m. PST, which is 1:50 p.m. on Wednesday in Catalonia. In parallel, Iranian state television speaks of 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Tehran time, which would be 2:00 a.m. in Catalonia. Amidst this jumble of times and time zones, it is noteworthy that the US president is the one giving the truce more oxygen. The ayatollahs, on the other hand, are the ones shortening it the most, although they are actually sticking to the time the pause began on April 7.
Trump said this Tuesday morning that he is "ready" to resume fighting and reiterated that he does not want to extend the truce. "We don't have much time," he said in a phone interview with CNBC when asked about the possibility of postponing the expiration. Although statements from Tehran seem far from showing any public progress in the talks, Trump continues to insist that he believes the US will achieve "a great deal."
Tarar acknowledged that at 7:30 PM (Pakistan time) they had not yet received any confirmation from the Iranians regarding their participation in a new round of talks. The delay in Vance's trip to Islamabad also casts a shadow over the outlook. The US delegation will not risk traveling to the Pakistani capital without being clear that Tehran will show up. The main reason why Vance's departure would have been postponed is that the White House wants firm guarantees that a solid agreement can be reached in the new round of talks. Internally, Trump would have already been considering the option of completely canceling the meeting, citing Tehran's refusal to accept his demands on uranium enrichment, according to the Wall Street Journal.The first —and so far only— meeting in Islamabad lasted more than 20 hours and ended without any understanding. Iranian sources leaked to the media that one of the major points of disagreement was the Strait of Hormuz. The ayatollahs demand to be recognized as the main actor controlling the passage. The US side focused on the nuclear issue. When Vance appeared to announce that he was returning to Washington without an agreement, he highlighted the Iranians' inability to yield on the nuclear program issue.
Last week, Trump claimed that the US had agreed with Iran to recover "nuclear dust" buried in the ruins of Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, which were bombed in June 2025. The term "nuclear dust" is the concept with which Trump refers to enriched uranium in the hands of the Iranians, which is considered one of the main security concerns for the US. The announcement that Americans will be able to recover these remains has not been confirmed by Iran.
The other two strongmen of the negotiating team, special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, are already in Washington. In theory, their flight had departed from Florida to stop in Europe and head to Pakistan. One of Iran's recent demands to confirm attendance at the new peace rounds was to see Vance board the plane heading to the Asian country. The price of a barrel of crude oil has again touched $100 after the US delegation's trip to Islamabad was put on hold.
The blockade in the Strait of Hormuz continues
Blockade continues in the Strait of HormuzEarly Tuesday morning, the United States military boarded a sanctioned oil tanker in the Indian Ocean, 600 kilometers off the coast of Sri Lanka. This is the oil tanker M/T Tifani, and the operation is part of Washington's efforts to pressure Iran by seizing sanctioned vessels that, according to the White House's version, "provide material support to Iran." The operation was carried out on the high seas. On this matter, the Pentagon reiterated in a statement that international waters "are not a haven for sanctioned ships." "The Department of War will continue to deny illicit actors and their ships freedom of maneuver in the maritime domain," Washington stressed.