Trump backs down and agrees with Iran on a two-week truce

WashingtonThe doomsday judgment announced by Donald Trump has also not arrived this dawn in Iran. Shortly before the clock in Washington struck eight in the evening and the ultimatum expired, the US president has once again backed down. The Republican has frozen for two weeks "hell" with which he had promised to annihilate Persian civilization, in exchange for Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz. But the truce, mediated by Pakistan, accentuates the asymmetry that has been observed during the month of conflict. In his confirmation of the agreement, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Aragchi, has stressed that it will be possible to "circulate safely" through the maritime passage "through the coordination of the armed forces of Iran".

Aragchi's statement, which Trump has deemed good and shared on Truth Social, states that the framework for negotiations will be Iran's 10-point proposal, as well as Washington's 15-point plan. "We have received a ten-point proposal from Iran and we believe it constitutes a viable basis for negotiation," the American stated. He adds that "almost all past points of disagreement have already been agreed upon between the United States and Iran, but a two-week period will allow the agreement to be finalized and formalized".

Trump's sudden change of opinion comes after he threatened Iran with war crimes on Saturday morning. You only had to scroll down a bit in the For the moment, the US administration has not confirmed whether this is the framework they have agreed to. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt has limited herself to presenting it as "a victory for the US thanks to President Trump and our soldiers." Leavitt assured that on Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, will appear to provide an update on the situation in the region. Amidst the escalating tensions, the Pentagon had mobilized 7,000 additional soldiers in the Middle East. Among them, two marine units. The one on board the USS Tripoli already arrived last weekend, and it is estimated that the other with the USS Boxer was due to arrive by mid-April.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has celebrated the achievement of the truce in X and has invited the American and Iranian delegations to meet in Islamabad this Friday. Although Trump has stressed that it is a "bilateral ceasefire", the war has always been a three-way affair. The United States attacked Tehran on February 28 along with Israel. The Israeli government says it supports its partner's ceasefire, but will not stop attacks against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. In principle, one of the Iranians' other demands is that the cessation of hostilities also apply in Lebanon.

Tel Aviv is endangering the incipient ceasefire, but Trump is already talking about peace. In a post after the announcement, Trump celebrated the milestone as "a great day for world peace" and was quick to say that "the US will help with the recovery of transit in the Strait of Hormuz". "There will be a lot of positive action! A lot of money will be made. Iran can start the reconstruction process. We will load all kinds of supplies and simply "be around" to make sure everything goes well," he wrote on Truth Social. And he topped it off with the assertion that "this could be the Golden Age of the Middle East".

Despite the agreement, shortly after the ceasefire was announced, Persian Gulf countries - including Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Israel - continued to register missile and drone attacks. It is unclear whether this is a violation of the pause by Iran or if the information was still being received through the chain of command by the rest of the Iranian forces. Beyond the army, the ayatollah regime also has the Revolutionary Guard, which acts as a separate, decentralized body that only obeys the supreme leader.

Washington's credibility, eroded

Trump's sudden change of mind comes after he threatened Iran with war crimes on Saturday morning. You only had to scroll down a bit on the president's profile time-line to go from the announcement of the ceasefire to the post in which he promised that "an entire civilization will die tonight." The serious rhetorical escalation against the Iranians, de facto exposing the possibility of executing a genocide, had caused Tehran to cut off all official communications with Washington. The US president had been threatening for the past few days with attacks on civilian infrastructure such as bridges, power plants, and even desalination plants in the country. Actions that would constitute a war crime according to the Geneva Convention. In fact, both Americans and Israelis had previously bombed bridges and railway lines.

This morning's U-turn is not the first that Trump has made in the midst of the military campaign with Iran, but it is the most drastic and sensitive. The shift calls into question the credibility of the president's threats, especially after hinting at genocide against the Persians. With the same vagueness with which he tried to justify the start of the war, now the president is also trying to sell its end. In the ceasefire announcement, the leader assures that they have "reached and surpassed all military objectives." Abstract milestones that have never been much detailed. Before the ceasefire was announced, images of a spike in orders at pizzerias near the Pentagon were circulating. It is said that every time the army is about to attack or experiences a crisis situation, orders increase. Perhaps on this occasion, the reason was the anticipation of a long night spent preparing a more detailed list of accomplished military objectives that Hegseth and Caine can defend in their appearance.

Meanwhile, the data the White House is clinging to in order to claim victory is that the promised deadlines have been met. "From the very beginning of Operation Epic Fury, President Trump estimated it would be an operation of between 4 and 6 weeks. Thanks to the incredible capabilities of our soldiers, we have achieved and even exceeded our main military objectives in 38 days," Leavitt has written. The US administration is doing the same thing with Iran as it did with Gaza, wanting to sell a ceasefire as the end of the war.