JERUSALEM — A two-week halt in the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran appeared largely to hold on Wednesday, the morning after President Donald Trump abandoned his threat to wipe out “a whole civilization” and granted an extension for diplomacy to continue, just 90 minutes before his 8 p.m. self-imposed deadline.
Trump, posting on social media, said that he had agreed to suspend plans for massive strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure and bridges on the condition that Iran agree to “the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz,” a vital passageway for about one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies.
The pause came as the war’s economic and political fallout, including a near-doubling of gasoline prices in the United States and a falling approval rating as midterm elections near, had begun to mount. Stock futures surged and oil prices plunged following the ceasefire announcement.
Israel said it supported Trump’s decision, according to a brief statement published overnight by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but that temporary truce did not extend to its assault on Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militant group that Israel has been fighting in southern Lebanon with increasing ferocity.
At the Pentagon on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that military operations will pause as the ceasefire plays out.
“The joint force remains ready, if ordered or called upon, to resume combat operations,” Caine said. Hegseth offered few details on two key provisions of the agreement — whether the U.S. military will have a role in getting commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz or in removing buried uranium that Iran may have to hand over as part of a deal.
The Israeli military on Wednesday morning issued new evacuation orders to residents of southern Lebanon, indicating plans to step up military operations. Amid the ongoing hostilities, the Lebanese army overnight called on citizens to delay their return to southern villages and towns where Israel has advanced.
Israel launched several strikes without warning on central Beirut for the first time in weeks in what the Israel Defense Forces called the “largest coordinated strike on Lebanon” since the start of the war.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said in a statement that “no one negotiates on behalf of Lebanon except the Lebanese state.” He said his country is “working to intensify” its political and diplomatic efforts to end hostilities in Lebanon, which he said is his primary concern. He said that despite Lebanese efforts to reach a ceasefire, “Israel continues to expand its attacks,” targeting densely populated residential neighborhoods, including in the capital.
The Lebanese Health Ministry says dozens of people have been killed in Israeli strikes across the country.
Despite the truce, both Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates said they intercepted Iranian drone and missile attacks Wednesday. The Iranian state broadcaster said the attacks were in response to a strike on an Iranian refinery in the morning.
Following Trump’s announcement, Iran issued a statement citing his “acceptance of the general Framework of Iran’s 10-point proposal for negotiations” and said that for two weeks “safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via coordination” with the Iranian military.
Iranian state media and broadcasters aired footage of Iranians, including officials, gathering in public squares in Tehran overnight, waving flags and raising fists, to celebrate what their leaders described as a national triumph.
With Washington and Tehran each claiming victory, the agreement raised the prospect of some respite after nearly six weeks of bombing and other attacks, which rights groups report have killed nearly 1,500 civilians in Iran and dozens more in the region. But major obstacles remain in any effort to achieve a durable peace accord.
On Wednesday, Trump posted that the U.S. “will work closely with Iran” to find an agreement.
Vice President JD Vance, who spent Tuesday helping boost the reelection campaign of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest, on Wednesday morning repeatedly called the ceasefire a “fragile truce” and said Trump was “impatient to make progress.”
Vance said Trump had told him, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff to “go and work in good faith to come to an agreement” with the Iranians. Pakistan, the primary mediator in talks, said delegations were invited to Islamabad on Friday to continue negotiations.
Vance said that Trump instructed them that if the Iranians “lie” or “cheat” or interfere with the two-week ceasefire, then “they’re not going to be happy” with the outcome of the talks.
While an Israeli-led assassination campaign has killed many senior political and military leaders in Iran, officials and analysts say that hard-liners remain fully in control of the government in Tehran.
Trump on Tuesday called a 10-point proposal formulated by Tehran a “workable basis on which to negotiate,” but it includes terms on which the U.S. has refused to budge, including allowing Iran’s nuclear enrichment activities. On Truth Social on Wednesday, he again reiterated that “there will be no enrichment of Uranium” and said that the U.S. is discussing tariff and sanctions relief with Iran.
Trump, meanwhile, has also claimed U.S. military and diplomatic success, insisting that “regime change” has been accomplished in Tehran and that he agreed to pause attacks because the U.S. “already met and exceeded all Military objectives” and is “far along” in the process of finding long-term peace.
Trump also wrote Wednesday that any country supplying military weapons to Iran will face an immediate 50 percent tariff on all goods sold to the United States.
Some U.S. officials and analysts have said Trump’s claims of military success are largely based on overly optimistic assessments of the war by Hegseth that risk misinforming the public.
Iranian and U.S. leaders credited Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and military chief Asim Munir in the push for a negotiated end to the increasingly dangerous and damaging war, which has led to spikes in energy prices and disruptions of global supply chains.
But the continuing differences were evident in statements after the halt in attacks was announced.
Trump on Tuesday said “almost all of the various points of past contention” have been agreed to between the two parties.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, meanwhile, congratulated Iranians, saying “the enemy had suffered an undeniable, historic, and crushing defeat,” according to Iran’s state-run agency IRNA.
Late last month, Washington advanced a 15-point proposal aimed at ending the war, with demands that included the removal of all of Iran’s enriched uranium material, limits on Tehran’s ballistic missile program and the cessation of support to militant groups in the region, including Hezbollah. “Many of the 15 points have already been been agreed to,” Trump wrote in a Wednesday morning post.
As recently as Monday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called those stipulations “excessively demanding, unreasonable, and illogical.”
The Supreme National Security Council said the U.S. was “compelled” to accept its 10-point framework, which it said included accepting Iran’s nuclear enrichment activities, recognizing Iran’s control over the Strait of Hormuz, lifting sanctions and halting hostilities “across all fronts.”
Speaking at the Pentagon on Wednesday, Hegseth said, “On the uranium, we’re watching it.” He said that “we know what they have, and they will give it up, and we’ll get it and take it.”
The Pentagon has military plans in place to seize that uranium, two people familiar with the planning have told The Washington Post. That mission, which would require Special Forces, is highly complex and dangerous and could result in additional troop deaths, according to those people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press.
As the announcement of a two-week ceasefire in Iran sent oil prices plunging, analysts warned that the relief could be short-lived unless a durable plan for securing the flow of crude through the strait is quickly reached.
Prices for oil dropped more than 15 percent on news of the ceasefire, which includes a provision to allow limited transit of tankers through the narrow strait where they have idled since the war began at the end of February.
Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, was trading at less than $92 Wednesday morning. The drop means the average price for a gallon of gasoline should gradually start to fall by the end of the week, according to analysts.
“Gas prices could start reversing nationally in 48 hours or so — by a few cents every day,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at the price-tracking app Gas Buddy, wrote in a post on X after the ceasefire was announced. “Diesel prices may lag slightly — but where things stand now, diesel is NO longer likely to reach a record. National average gasoline could fall below $4 in ~1-2 weeks, diesel >$5 in 6-8 weeks.”
The average price at the pump had risen to $4.16 nationally by Monday morning, according to AAA, up 40 percent since before the U.S. attacked Iran. It is expected to continue to rise slightly in the next couple of days, as filling stations work through their inventories of gasoline acquired before prices started falling.
Some prices related to the pressures on oil could take much longer to start coming down. The International Air Transport Association warned it could be months before the cost of jet fuel drops back to where it was.
Analysts further cautioned that any relief could be short-lived. It hinges on successful negotiations for a lasting peace.
“Iran’s 10-point plan looks [like] an unacceptable deal for the U.S.,” and others too, said Neil Crosby, head of oil research at Sparta, a market research firm. He said the two countries are so far apart that there is only “a small chance that transits into Hormuz will be allowed to rise to anything substantial enough to make a dent in the problem.”
Iran effectively closed the narrow strait, sending prices soaring and economies around the world reeling. The drop in oil prices that followed the announcement of the ceasefire is built in part on market optimism that the president will be reluctant to resume bombing Iran.
But some of the demands Iran is making have long been dismissed as unacceptable by the administration, including that it be permitted to continue uranium enrichment, that sanctions be lifted, and that the U.S. withdraw all forces from the region.
Shipping traffic remained at a near-standstill in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, according to marine traffic monitoring and an Iranian official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media. The Iranian official said Tehran was in the process of reopening the strait and ensuring safe passage for vessels.
Under the new arrangement, Iran and Oman are to provide security for the strait and will collect tolls to pay for that security, according to the Iranian official, who declined to say how much the tolls would be. It’s unclear if the United States agreed to this arrangement as part of the ceasefire. Iran has granted passage to a handful of tankers since the war began, but the vast majority of maritime companies deem the journey too dangerous, given attacks in the area and reports that Iran mined the strait.
Even if negotiations are successful, it would probably be months before oil and gas prices return to anything close to where they were before the war broke out. The firm Capital Economics projects oil prices will average around $95 into the summer before dropping to $80 by the end of the year.
The firm also expects inflation — pushed up by the war — to continue rising in the short term.
Trump’s threat to wipe out “a whole civilization” had raised alarm about a potentially devastating escalation in military attacks, perhaps even a threat of nuclear war. The White House on Tuesday swiftly dismissed those suggestions, saying that the use of nuclear weapons was not under consideration.
Several leaders, including Pope Leo XIV, and some members of Congress had reacted with dismay at the threat against an entire nation of some 93 million people.
Leaders across the Middle East, whose countries have been caught up in the destabilizing war, welcomed the pause in fighting Wednesday and thanked Pakistan for its mediation.
Many European leaders also commended parties on reaching a temporary deal, with French President Emmanuel Macron calling it a “very good thing” and the European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, calling it “a step back from the brink” and a “much-needed chance to tone down threats.”
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who has led European opposition to the war, reiterated his frustration, saying that while ceasefires are “always good news,” Spain’s government “will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket.”
After the ceasefire announcement, Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, posting on X, lamented Israel’s lack of involvement in Trump’s decision: “There has never been such a political disaster in all of our history.” Lapid said Israel “wasn’t even at the table” when decisions were made about Israel’s national security.
“Netanyahu failed politically, failed strategically, and didn’t meet a single one of the goals that he himself set,” Lapid said.
Allison reported from Budapest; and Halper, George and Copp reported from Washington. Siham Shamalakh and Heba Farouk Mahfouz in Cairo; and Suzan Haidamous, Abbie Cheeseman and Mohamad El Chamaa in Beirut contributed to this report.
The post Halt in strikes mostly holds after Trump, Iran agree to 2-week ceasefire appeared first on Washington Post.
