President Donald Trump announced the United States reached a ceasefire with Iran for two weeks after earlier threatening to destroy Iranian energy and transportation infrastructure and wipe out a “whole civilization.”
The pause came less than two hours before the 8 p.m. ET deadline Trump set for a deal. The agreement, the president said, will be contingent on Iran allowing oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway used to ship much of the world’s oil.
The president had threatened to launch the sweeping attacks if the country did not relinquish its grip over the critical area. Iran has blocked traffic through the strait, driving up fuel prices and causing the global economy to wobble.
“I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks,” Trump said in a statement on social media. “This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE! The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East.”
Israel will be part of the ceasefire if Iran opens the Strait of Hormuz, a White House official told USA TODAY. Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi in a statement said the country will observe the ceasefire “if attacks on Iran are halted.”
USA TODAY has reached out to the White House to confirm the U.S. strikes on Iran have stopped.
The president cited the intervention of Pakistani leaders in peace negotiations as the reason behind his move to “hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran.”
Trump said Iran sent the White House a “workable” 10-point plan for peace that the two sides will begin negotiating.
Michael Loria
The United States and Israel say any lasting peace with Iran will be contingent on access to the Strait of Hormuz, the critical oil shipping lane Iran has managed to make the key issue of the war.
The military operation launched Feb. 28 in an effort, leaders said, to eliminate Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Iran responded to strikes by effectively blocking traffic through the strait, a 100-mile waterway through which some 20% of the world’s oil and natural gas supply passes.
Iran’s strategic closure of the channel has resulted in spiking gas prices and tumbling financial markets, leaving President Trump to deal with repeated questions about whether he would be able to reopen the channel before its closure has had a drastic impact on the economy.
Pending an end to strikes on Iran, the country’s foreign minister has promised its armed forces will allow oil tankers to move through the channel again.
Read more here.
Michael Loria
The ceasefire between the United States, Israel and Iran will take effect “IMMEDIATELY” and extend “everywhere including Lebanon,” Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a statement announcing the breakthrough in negotiations.
“With the greatest humility, I am pleased to announce that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY,” Sharif said. “Both parties have displayed remarkable wisdom and understanding and have remained constructively engaged in furthering the cause of peace and stability.”
Sharif’s comments come as leaders from the United States and Iran have credited the Islamic republic bordering Iran with helping secure the ceasefire deal. The prime minister referred to the breakthrough as the “Islamabad Talks,” a reference to Pakistan’s capital city.
The prime minister said negotiations will continue in Islamabad on Friday, April 10. He did not elaborate on who will attend.
Cybele Mayes-Osterman
Rizwan Saeed Sheikh, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States, told USA TODAY in a written message that the ceasefire was the work of “leadership in concert” and came from “persistent/patient diplomacy.” More diplomacy was needed, he said.
Pakistan had for weeks acted as a mediator between the United States and Iran. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an April 7 statement announcing the ceasefire that Iran had acted “in response to the brotherly request” of Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Sharif in his own X post minutes later said U.S. and Iranian delegations were invited to Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad on April 10 “to further negotiate for a conclusive agreement to settle all disputes.”
Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy
Israel has agreed to an Iran ceasefire if the Strait of Hormuz is opened, a White House official confirmed to USA TODAY.
The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman used to ship 20% of the world’s oil, which has been effectively closed by Iran since the start of the war six weeks ago.
President Trump announced that he had agreed “suspend bombing for two weeks” and that the United States had received a 10-point peace plan from Iran.
Michael Loria
Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi in a statement said the country will observe the ceasefire “if attacks on Iran are halted.”
“I hereby declare on behalf of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council: If attacks on Iran are halted, our Powerful Armed Forces will cease their defensive operations,” Araghchi said.
The Iranian minister promised safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz to vessels that coordinate with the country’s armed forces. Araghchi credited Pakistani diplomats for moving peace talks forward to the point of a ceasefire.
Michael Loria
President Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran two hours shy of his deadline for negotiations.
The announcement came shortly after Prime Minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif had issued a public plea to “allow diplomacy to run its course.”
According to Trump, Iran sent the White House a 10-point plan for negotiations that the president called “workable.”
“The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East,” Trump said in a statement on social media. “Almost all of the various points of past contention have been agreed to between the United States and Iran, but a two week period will allow the Agreement to be finalized and consummated.”
Michael Loria
President Donald Trump briefly responded to Iranian leaders urging people to form human chains around potential targets in the Middle Eastern country.
“Totally illegal,” Trump told NBC News. “They’re not allowed to do that.”
Photos shared on social media of the human chains show scores of people standing side by side carrying Iranian flags and signs reading “infrastructure is not a battlefield; it is the backbone of civilian life.”
Michael Loria
Reza Amiri Moghadam, Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan, signaled progress in peace negotiations with nearly two hours until Trump’s deadline.
“Productive endeavours in Good Will and Good Office to stop the war is approaching a critical, sensitive stage,” Moghadam said in a statement on X. “Stay more tuned…”
USA TODAY has reached out to the White House for comment.
Dinah Voyles Pulver
A federal advisory warning of an “urgent and ongoing Iranian-affiliated cybersecurity threat” targeting U.S.-based organizations was sent to governmental offices across the country on Tuesday.
The warning, distributed by the Environmental Protection Agency, the FBI and two other national security agencies, especially cautioned operators of water facilities. Multiple organizations are experiencing exploitation and, in some cases, “disruption of commonly used operational technology at drinking water and wastewater systems,” the alert said.
“Cybersecurity threats are a serious concern for our nation’s water infrastructure, including the communities, businesses, hospitals, and other critical infrastructure sectors that rely on these critical lifeline services,” said Jess Kramer, the EPA’s assistant administrator for water.
In February, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, warned that attacks had been made against small municipal water systems by Iran and other opposition governments in at least four states over the last three years.
Michael Loria
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, slammed President Donald Trump over his threats to take out “a whole civilization.”
“The President’s threat that ‘a whole civilization will die tonight’ cannot be excused away as an attempt to gain leverage in negotiations with Iran,” Murkowski said in a statement on X. “This type of rhetoric is an affront to the ideals our nation has sought to uphold and promote around the world for nearly 250 years.”
Murkowski wasn’t the only Republican to criticize Trump on Tuesday.
Michael Loria
A gunman was killed and two Turkish officers were injured in an extended firefight outside the Israeli consulate in Istanbul. A U.S. official in the region described the incident as an attack on Israel.
“Attacks on diplomatic missions are attacks on the international order — and an assault on the principles that bind nations together. We commend Türkiye and Turkish security forces for their swift and decisive response,” Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack said in a statement.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan described the shooting as a “heinous terrorist attack.”
Witnesses said the shooting lasted 10 minutes. No Israeli staff were at the consulate, authorities said. Israeli diplomats exited the country in late 2023 after the start of Israel’s war with Hamas.
Mustafa Ciftci, Turkey’s interior minister, described the attackers as having links to an organization that “exploits religion.” He said two of the attackers were brothers, and they drove in a rental car from the city of Izmit.
Michael Loria
Israeli officials confirmed a strike from the country’s military on Iran destroyed a synagogue in the capital city of Tehran.
Photos of the structure showed torn and scattered Hebrew texts and members of the city’s Jewish community walking through the rubble. Mohammad B. Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament, said the “Rafi-nia Synagogue in Tehran served as a house of worship for Iranian Jews for many decades.”
Israeli military officials said they were targeting a senior Iranian commander. They expressed regret for the destruction of the synagogue. It wasn’t immediately clear if there were any casualties as a result of the strike.
Some 15,000 Jews lived in Iran, PBS News reported in 2018. Jews have lived in the region for thousands of years.
Andrea Riquier
Financial markets closed near the flatline Tuesday, after paring steep losses from earlier in the day.
Oil slipped nearly 3% to about $106 a barrel for Brent crude in the afternoon. The 10-year Treasury note was virtually unchanged at about 4.343%.
U.S. stocks were mostly lower: the Nasdaq and S&P 500 both jumped into positive territory with seconds to go in the trading session to close up about 0.1% each. The Dow lost 0.2%, or about 85 points.
One of the biggest movers of the day was the VIX volatility index, which surged more than 11%. The index is often referred to as Wall Street’s “fear gauge” because it spikes during periods of uncertainty or market chop.
Michael Loria
Shehbaz Sharif, prime minister of Pakistan, asked President Donald Trump to extend his deadline by two weeks to “allow diplomacy to run its course.”
“Diplomatic efforts for peaceful settlement of the ongoing war in the Middle East are progressing steadily, strongly and powerfully with the potential to lead to substantive results in near future,” Sharif said on X. “To allow diplomacy to run its course, I earnestly request President Trump to extend the deadline for two weeks.”
“Pakistan, in all sincerity, requests the Iranian brothers to open Strait of Hormuz for a corresponding period of two weeks as a goodwill gesture,” he added, also calling for a ceasefire in the region.
The statement from the Pakistani prime minister comes as less than five hours remain before Trump’s promised deadline. The Islamic republic bordering Iran has been a key player in negotiations between Iran and the United States.
Christopher Cann
Kuwait’s Interior Ministry on Tuesday urged residents to shelter-in-place from midnight to 6 a.m. Wednesday as a “precautionary measure.”
The warning from Iran’s neighbor comes ahead of President Donald Trump’s deadline to carry out widespread attacks on Iranian infrastructure.
Natalie Neysa Alund
After President Donald Trump warned the U.S. military would strike Iran’s critical infrastructure should its leaders not open the Strait of Hormuz, Pope Leo on Tuesday appealed for peace, Reuters reported, saying threats against the population of Iran are “unacceptable.”
An outspoken critic of the Iran war, the pope asked citizens across the globe to contact their respective lawmakers and ask them “to bring the expanding regional conflict to an end.”
Christopher Cann
Iran’s U.N. ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani promised that his country will retaliate if President Donald Trump carries out his threat to destroy Iran’s power plants and bridges.
“Iran will not stand idle in the face of such egregious war crimes,” he said during a U. N. Security Council meeting. “It will exercise, without hesitation, its inherent right of self-defense and will take immediate and proportionate reciprocal measures.”
Iranian officials have previous vowed to intensify its attacks on Gulf neighbors infrastructure, threatening vital water desalination plants and energy sites.
Christopher Cann
The White House said only President Donald Trump knows where things stand amid reports that Iran has walked away from negotiations after Trump’s threat to wipe out the country’s entire civilization.
“The Iranian regime has until 8PM Eastern Time to meet the moment and make a deal with the United States,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “Only the President knows where things stand and what he will do.”
Iran has stopped engaging in talks to end the war, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing Iranian and Middle Eastern officials. It’s unclear if talks will pick up before Trump’s 8 p.m. deadline, the outlets said.
Iranian officials have not publicly confirmed whether talks have stalled.
Christopher Cann
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday said he hopes there will be a positive breakthrough in negotiations with Iran as the clock winds down on President Trump’s threat to bombard the country’s infrastructure.
“Hope we have more news later today on that,” Rubio said when asked if he expects Iran to come to the table.
Rubio’s comments were made ahead of his meeting with New Zealand’s foreign minister. He did not respond to a question about what Trump meant by his threat in which he said a “whole civilization will die tonight.”
Christopher Cann
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said the Israeli military struck bridges and railroads in Iran, ahead of President Donald Trump’s deadline to strike Iranian infrastructure.
“These actions that I approved alongside the defense minister are not meant to attack the Iranian people,” Netanyahu said in a video address. “On the contrary, they were meant to weaken and crush the horrifying regime oppressing them for 47 years.”
Netanyahu said the strikes were necessary to degrade the Revolutionary Guard, which he accused of using bridges and trains to transfer weapons materials. Experts have said intentionally targeting civilian infrastructure could constitute war crimes.
In a statement, the Israeli military said it struck eight bridges in Iran, including several in the cities of Tehran, Karaj, Tabriz, Kashan and Qom.
Zac Anderson
Trump’s threats to dramatically escalate the U.S. military conflict in Iran are drawing strong pushback from some on the right, with former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene suggesting the president should be removed from office.
“25TH AMENDMENT!!! Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness,” Greene, once a close Trump ally who has become an outspoken critic, wrote on social media in response to a post by Trump warning that “A whole civilization will die tonight.”
The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution empowers the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” and elevate the vice president to the job.
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson said he hopes Trump’s threat in an April 5 social media post to target Iran’s bridges and power plants “really is bluster.”
“I do not want to see us start blowing up civilian infrastructure. I do not want to see that,” Johnson said.
Prominent conservative commentator Tucker Carlson called the April 5 post is “vile” on “every level.”
“It begins with a promise to use the U.S. military, our military, to destroy civilian infrastructure in another country,” Carlson said April 6 on The Tucker Carlson Show. “Which is to say to commit a war crime, a moral crime, against the people of the country.”
Christopher Cann
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called President Trump “an extremely sick person” in a social media post responding to Trump’s threat to wipe out Iran’s entire civilization.
“Each Republican who refuses to join us in voting against this wanton war of choice owns every consequence of whatever the hell this is,” Schumer said in a post on X.
Hours earlier, Trump stepped up his threats on Iran, writing in a social media post: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
Cybele Mayes-Osterman
The U.S. embassy in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, warned all government employees and Americans across the Middle Eastern country to shelter in place.
“To the extent possible, remain in a secure structure, and stay away from windows,” the embassy warned in an April 7 security alert.
“Iran and its aligned terrorist militias may intend to target American universities in Bahrain. Iran has specifically threatened American universities across the Middle East.”
U.S. embassies have warned in recent days that Iran may target American universities campuses in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other U.S.-allied countries in the region.
Christopher Cann
President Donald Trump said he will not budge on his threat to carry out broad attacks on Iranian infrastructure if his Tuesday deadline is not met.
“8 p.m. is happening,” Trump told Fox News host Bret Baier on Tuesday, adding that if no momentum builds toward a deal “there is going to be an attack like they have not seen.”
Trump told the outlet that could change if negotiations move forward and there is something “concrete,” but said he “didn’t want to put odds on it.”
Kim Hjelmgaard
An Iranian official issued a video message that was shown on state TV and later posted on an official government social media account calling on “all young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors” to form human chains around Iran’s power plants.
The official in question, Alireza Rahimi − Iran’s deputy minister of youth and sports − made the comments shortly before President Donald Trump warned Iran’s leaders that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if the nation fails to agree a deal aimed at ending the war.
Iranians have formed human chains in the past around nuclear sites at times of heightened tensions with the West. Trump has threatened to strike Iran’s civilian power plants and other public infrastructure. Doing so could amount to a war crime under international legal standards. Trump has brushed off those concerns.
Christopher Cann
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said “more than 14 million proud Iranians have so far registered to sacrifice their lives to defend Iran.”
“I too have been, am, and will remain devoted to giving my life for Iran,” he in a post on X.
The comments from Pezeshkian, who has been in power since 2024, come as President Donald Trump vowed that a “whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran does not make a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Christopher Cann
Vice President JD Vance said while there are delays in transmitting messages between negotiators, he is “confident” Tehran will respond to the demands of the United States by President Donald Trump’s Tuesday night deadline.
“We feel confident that we’re going to get a response, whether it’s positive or negative,” he said while speaking in Budapest. “I hope they make the right response.”
“The ball is in the Iranian’s court,” Vance added.
Francesca Chambers
Vance said at his news conference that Iran faces a choice and can go down one of two pathways after the conflict.
The first option is for Iran to be a “normal country” that does not fund terrorism. The second one pathway is one in which its leaders “don’t come to the table” and Tehran’s economic situation further deteriorates.
“The nature of the conclusion is ultimately up to the Iranians,” Vance said of the negotiations that are underway. “Militarily, it frankly doesn’t matter one way or the other to us. It’s fundamentally a question of what does this look like afterwards,” he added.
Christopher Cann
The U.S. carried out multiple strikes on the island early Tuesday morning, according to Reuters and the Wall Street Journal, citing officials. American forces in March carried out strikes on the island where Iran’s main oil export terminal is located.
When asked about newly reported strikes on Kharg Island, Vice President JD Vance said the action does not represent a shift in strategy.
“We were going to strike some military targets on Kharg Island, and I believe we have done so,” Vance while speaking in Budapest on Tuesday. “I don’t think the news on Kharg Island represents a change in strategy or represents any change from the president of the United States.”
Christopher Cann
Vice President JD Vance expressed hope that a deal can be reached between the U.S. and Iran before President Donald Trump’s 8 p.m. deadline.
“I hope that they’re smart,” Vance said, speaking during a visit to Budapest. “The president has set a deadline for about 12 hours from now. We’re going to find out. But there’s going to be a lot of negotiation between now and then, and I am hopeful that it gets to a good resolution.”
Vance said the U.S. has “largely accomplished” its military objectives and that “very shortly this war is going to conclude.”
Andrea Riquier
Financial markets were choppy ahead of Trump’s 8 PM ET deadline.
Oil bounced, with a barrel of Brent crude trading near $110 just before 9 AM ET, after being as low as $107 overnight.
Stocks looked set to open lower, and government bonds also sold off. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was more than 2 basis points higher. Bond yields rise when prices fall, and investors have been selling bonds in anticipation of higher inflation caused by the war.
The price of gasoline has popped, standing at $4.139 a gallon nationally at last check.
Francesca Chambers
Trump issued a stark warning to Iran on Tuesday morning, hours before his deadline for the country’s leaders to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, that a wave of expected U.S. military attacks on critical infrastructure would be debilitating and potentially unrecoverable for the nation.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump wrote in a April 7 social media post.
The president left the door open to a possible eleventh-hour deal with Iran to avoid an escalation, saying in his post that a group of officials the U.S. says it has been negotiating with privately are “smarter” and “less radicalized” than their predecessors.
“[M]aybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World,” he wrote.
Michael Loria
A press briefing on Iran war operations has reportedly been scrapped ahead of a threatened major escalation in the conflict.
The briefing was expected to happen at 8 a.m. at the Pentagon, 12 hours ahead of Trump’s deadline for strikes on Iranian infrastructure. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were expected to lead the briefing.
Journalists at multiple outlets, including Reuters and NewsNation, reported on the cancellation.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment on why officials scrapped the briefing.
Michael Loria
Inflation will rise and economic growth across the world will slow as a result of the war with Iran, the leader of the International Monetary Fund told Reuters Monday.
The warning from the head of the global financial organization comes as Iran has leveraged its ability to block oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz to disrupt global fuel supplies. Global oil supply has shrunk by 13%, according to the IMF.
Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the IMF, told Reuters that the fund expects to lower its global economic growth projections down from 3.3% in 2026 and 3.2% in 2027.
“All roads now lead to higher prices and slower growth,” said Georgieva. The longer the war lasts, the worse the fund expects projections could become, according to the IMF.
Michael Loria
Trump has called his ultimatum to Iran the final chance to come to the negotiating table and make a deal to end the war. But the president’s threats come after a string of earlier deadlines that he pushed back. Here’s a look: