The United States and Iran have agreed to a two-week ceasefire barely an hour before Donald Trump\u2019s Wednesday deadline to obliterate the country was set to expire, with Tehran saying it will temporarily reopen the vital strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Both sides claimed to have won the more than month-long conflict that has roiled global financial markets and sent oil prices skyrocketing, with Trump telling the AFP news agency the deal was a \u201ctotal and complete victory\u201d for the US.<\/p>\n
Iran too cast the ceasefire as a win and said it had agreed to talks with Washington to begin Friday in Pakistan on a path to end the conflict.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe enemy has suffered an undeniable, historic and crushing defeat in its cowardly, illegal and criminal war against the Iranian nation,\u201d said a statement from the Iranian Supreme National Security Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran achieved a great victory.\u201d<\/p>\n
The White House said Israel had also agreed to the ceasefire, but prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it does not include Lebanon, where Israeli assaults in response to rocket fire by Iranian-backed Hezbollah have led to more than 1,500 deaths, according to Lebanese authorities.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council said it had conditionally accepted a two-week ceasefire if attacks against Iran are halted.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s foreign minister said passage through the strait of Hormuz will be allowed for the next 2 weeks under Iranian military management.<\/p>\n
Iranian state media said negotiations with the US would be held in Islamabad to finalise details of an agreement, with the aim of \u201cconfirming Iran\u2019s battlefield achievements\u201d. Talks will begin on Friday 10 April and may be extended, state media reported. State media also reported that talks with the US do not amount to the end of the war.<\/p>\n
Pakistani prime minister Shebaz Sharif announced that Iran, the US and their allies agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon. Sharif has been a key figure in attempting to reach a diplomatic solution between the two warring parties. In his statement, Sharif invited delegations to Islamabad on \u201cFriday, 10th April 2026, to further negotiate for a conclusive agreement to settle all disputes\u201d.<\/p>\n
Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli welcomed the ceasefire but said fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon was not part of it.<\/p>\n
Trump said Iran had proposed a \u201cworkable\u201d 10-point peace plan. According to Iranian state media, the ten-point proposal includes a number of conditions that the US has in the past rejected. Among them are controlled transit through strait of Hormuz coordinated with Iranian armed forces and withdrawal of all US forces from regional bases. The plan would also require the lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions, payment of full compensation to Iran and release of all frozen Iranian assets.<\/p>\n
Iranian state media also said the 10-point plan for securing an end to the war would require Washington to accept its uranium enrichment program, a previous red line for the Trump administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n Even as the ceasefire was proposed, missile alerts continued in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Israel.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a001.51 EDT<\/p>\n Key events<\/p>\n Show key events only<\/p>\n Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature<\/p>\n Interim summary<\/p>\n For those of you just joining us, here\u2019s where things stand in the Middle East after a dramatic day.<\/p>\n The US and Iran have agreed to a two-week ceasefire, barely an hour before Donald Trump\u2019s Wednesday deadline to obliterate the country and its infrastructure.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council said it had conditionally accepted the two-week ceasefire if attacks against Iran are halted.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s foreign minister said passage through the strait of Hormuz will be allowed for the next two weeks under Iranian military management.<\/p>\n Iranian state media said negotiations with the US would be held in Islamabad to finalise details of an agreement. Talks will begin on Friday 10 April and may be extended, state media reported. State media also reported that talks with the US do not amount to the end of the war.<\/p>\n Pakistan\u2019s prime minister, Shebaz Sharif, announced that Iran, the US and their allies had agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon, but Israel disputed this, saying fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon was not part of the ceasefire. Sharif has been a key figure in attempting to reach a diplomatic solution between the two warring parties.<\/p>\n Trump said Iran had proposed a \u201cworkable\u201d 10-point peace plan. According to Iranian state media, the proposal includes a number of conditions that the US has in the past rejected, among them controlled transit through the strait of Hormuz coordinated with Iranian armed forces and the withdrawal of all US forces from regional bases. The plan would also require the lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions, payment of full compensation to Iran and release of all frozen Iranian assets.<\/p>\n Even as the ceasefire was proposed, missile alerts continued in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Israel.<\/p>\n Countries around the world have welcomed the tentative ceasefire. Australia\u2019s PM, Anthony Albanese, welcomed the \u201cvery positive\u201d developments but issued a rare rebuke of Trump\u2019s \u201cextraordinary\u201d language beforehand. South Korea, Japan and New Zealand were among the other nations to welcome the news.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Ceasefire a ‘political disaster’ says Israel’s opposition leader<\/p>\n Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid has offered up his reflections on the last few hours of diplomacy and said \u201cthere has never been such a political disaster in all of our history.\u201d<\/p>\n Lapid, who heads the centrist Yesh Atid party, has said Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu \u201cfailed politically, failed strategically, and didn\u2019t meet a single one of the goals that he himself set.\u201d<\/p>\n double quotation markIt will take us years to repair the political and strategic damage that Netanyahu wrought due to arrogance, negligence, and a lack of strategic planning.<\/p>\n Share<\/a> Analysis: US power has been severely diminished<\/p>\n The likely biggest consequences are the ones most difficult to assess. But it seems clear that the despite a bellicose assertion of US military power under Trump and his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, US power has been severely diminished by an illegal adventure with ill-defined war aims.<\/p>\n With Iran<\/a> still in control of the strait of Hormuz, a middle ranking global military power that has suffered under years of punitive sanctions has not only managed to survive weeks of heavy US and Israeli bombardment but pursued a succeessful strategy of horizontal escalation that imposed heavy global economic costs.<\/p>\n The more militarily significant Gulf states, to the surprise of few, turned out to be paper tigers, despite a huge investment in arms. Netanyahu, who promised an easy war was revealed, not for the first time, to be hopelessly unrealistic in his assessments about Iran and the wider region.<\/p>\n Across the globe friends and foes will draw their own conclusions. China and Russia will have noted the limits of US power and that, despite the jaw-jaw, the US did not commit ground troops to its chaotically conducted campaign.<\/p>\n The damage wrought by Trump to a weakened Nato will also have been well-noted, even as European countries have moved to distance themselves from Washington.<\/p>\n Practically, other big questions remain. Does the ceasefire deal cover Lebanon, as mediator Pakistan has suggested? In the run-up to the ceasefire, one suggestion was that one off ramp from the war would see the US and Israeli assault on Iran halt while Israel continued with an expansionist campaign against Lebanon to get Netanyahu off the hook.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump lost this war in every possible sense \u2013 morally, legally, politically, economically, reputationally, and strategically\u201d, suggested Timothy Snyder, a historian of authoritarianism, echoing the views of many experts.<\/p>\n Allow content provided by a third party?<\/p>\n This article includes content hosted on embed.bsky.app. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as the provider may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click ‘Allow and continue’.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump has given the theocracy in Iran another lease on life with this failed war,\u201d said Trita Parsi, an Iran expert at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, \u201cjust as Saddam Hussein did in 1980 when he invaded Iran and, by that, ensured that Ayatollah Khomeini could consolidate his power.\u201d<\/p>\n It is hard to disagree.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Analysis: Trump’s ‘deal’ is a huge strategic failure for the US A genocidal threat, and then the US president, Donald Trump, blinked \u2013 without any apparently meaningful concessions from Iran. As in so much concerning the second Trump administration<\/a>, the two week ceasefire \u201cdeal\u201d that will see the strait of Hormuz reopened \u2013 if it can be described as such \u2013 is maddeningly vague and short on detail, apparently kicking the can on key issues down the road.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s nuclear issue, Trump said, would be solved \u201cperfectly.\u201d \u201cIt was a big day for world peace\u201d, Trump posted on Truth Social. \u201cIran can start reconstruction\u201d he added. \u201cBig money\u201d could be made. Yada. Yada. Yada.<\/p>\n The reality is that as the current circumstances stand, this represents a huge strategic failure for the US. Despite having killed Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other senior leaders, the regime change initially promised by Trump and US prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to materialise. Instead it appears the regime has consolidated around a more hardline core centred on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.<\/p>\n Far from being a new, more reasonable and less radical regime, as Trump has repeatedly suggested, it remains essentially the same regime \u2013 wounded, wary, and perhaps even more hardline.<\/p>\n Donald Trump on the lawn of the White House in March. Photograph: Lenin Nolly\/SIPA\/ShutterstockShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a001.46 EDT<\/p>\n Blasts and missile alarm warnings have been heard in Bahrain, despite the announcement of the temporary ceasefire in the region. The country\u2019s interior ministry reported a fire had been extinguished at a facility after an Iranian attack, with no injuries sustained.<\/p>\n Israel said it was also intercepting missiles and striking back at sites in Iran, while Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates also activated warning sirens and air defence systems in the hours after the ceasefire announcement. It remains unclear when the ceasefire will take effect.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Mark Saunokonoko<\/p>\n The ceasefire has offered some immediate relief to countries struggling with fuel supply, but hopes the truce will quickly restore normality are misplaced, analysts have suggested.<\/p>\n Saul Kavonic, the head of energy research at MST Financial, said the two-week pause provided \u201can off-ramp for Trump\u2019s overly bombastic ultimatum, but not yet an off-ramp for oil markets or the war\u201d. He told Reuters it was unlikely the shut in oil and LNG production would resume until there was more confidence in a lasting ceasefire.<\/p>\n Ron Bousso, Reuter\u2019s energy correspondent, agreed that even if tankers could safely exit the Gulf, shipowners would probably remain cautious about re-entering the region when any resumption of hostilities could result in the loss of vessels or crew.<\/p>\n Prashant Newnaha, a senior strategist at the Singapore-based TD Securities, said a renewed escalation could not be ruled out, \u201cbut markets are treating this ceasefire as the real deal and all parties involved will sell the ceasefire as a major win.<\/p>\n \u201cLooking further out, oil prices are not returning to pre-war levels. This will leave inflation persistence as a key theme for markets to ponder,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Many other countries have also issued statements welcoming the tentative ceasefire, including South Korea, New Zealand and Iraq, alongside reactions from Australia, Japan and Pakistan as we reported earlier.<\/p>\n South Korea\u2019s ministry of foreign affairs issued a statement that they hoped \u201cnegotiations between the two sides will be successfully concluded and that peace and stability in the Middle East will be restored at an early date\u201d, as well as wishes for \u201cfree and safe navigation of all vessels through the strait of Hormuz\u201d.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for New Zealand\u2019s foreign minister, Winston Peters, welcomed the \u201cencouraging news\u201d but noted \u201cthere remains significant important work to be done to secure a lasting ceasefire\u201d. Iraq\u2019s foreign ministry likewise called for \u201cserious and sustainable dialogue\u201d between the US and Iran<\/a> \u201cto address the root causes of the disputes\u201d.<\/p>\n Share<\/a> Japan has welcomed the temporary ceasefire in the US-Israel war on Iran, adding that it \u201cexpects\u201d the move to result in a \u201cfinal agreement\u201d after Washington and Tehran begin talks on Friday.<\/p>\n Describing the ceasefire as a \u201cpositive move\u201d, the chief cabinet secretary, Minoru Kihara, told reporters that Tokyo wanted to see a de-escalation on the ground in the region, adding that the prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, was seeking talks with the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian.<\/p>\n A temporary end to hostilities will come as a relief to Japan, which depends on the Middle East for about 90% of its crude oil imports, most of which is transported through the strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n US President Trump meets with Japanese PM Takaichi at the White House in March. Photograph: Evelyn Hockstein\/Reuters<\/p>\n Takaichi has condemned Tehran for its partial blockade of the waterway and Iran\u2019s attacks on other Middle Eastern countries, but has refused a request from Donald Trump<\/a> to send Japanese maritime self-defence forces to help secure safe passage for ships using the strait.<\/p>\n The Japanese PM reportedly explained to Trump that military involvement was impossible under Japan\u2019s postwar constitution, which bans it from using force to settle international disputes.<\/p>\n Trump has since condemned Japan \u2013 and Washngton\u2019s other north-east Asian ally South Korea, along with Australia \u2013 for refusing to join the war.<\/p>\n Markets in Asia responded positively to news of the ceasefire, with the Nikkei stock index surging 4.8% and South Korea\u2019s Kospi gaining 5.6% on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n There was relief in Japan, too, over the dip in crude oil prices, after warnings that a prolonged conflict could push inflation higher and dampen domestic demand in the world\u2019s fourth-largest economy.<\/p>\n Takahide Kiuchi of the Nomura Research Institute said Japan and other countries in Asia that rely on oil imports could face \u201cserious economic risks\u201d if the conflict continued to drag on.<\/p>\n \u201cIf shipping operations in the strait of Hormuz do not return to normal, Japan will eventually face a severe crude oil shortage,\u201d Kiuchi told the Nikkei Asia business paper. \u201cShould such risks escalate, the government would likely call on households and businesses to curb gasoline and electricity consumption, much as it did during the oil shocks of the 1970s.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a000.59 EDT<\/p>\n US political leaders and many Americans breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday evening, after Donald Trump<\/a> announced a provisional ceasefire deal following threats to destroy Iran\u2019s \u201cwhole civilization\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m glad Trump backed off and is desperately searching for any sort of exit ramp from his ridiculous bluster,\u201d Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, said on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n Several Republicans<\/a> cheered the president\u2019s decision, casting it as shrewd and tactical.<\/p>\n \u201cExcellent news,\u201d Senator Rick Scott of Florida said. \u201cThis is a strong first step toward holding Iran<\/a> accountable and what happens when you have a leader who puts peace through strength over chaos and weak appeasement policies.\u201d<\/p>\n Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the chamber\u2019s loudest and most aggressive Iran<\/a> hawks, said on Tuesday evening he shared the hope that \u201cwe can end the reign of terror of the Iranian regime through diplomacy\u201d.<\/p>\n But he added: \u201cWe must remember that the strait of Hormuz was attacked by Iran after the start of the war, destroying freedom of navigation. Going forward, it is imperative Iran is not rewarded for this hostile act against the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Donald Trump claims ‘a big day for world peace’<\/p>\n Donald Trump has called Tuesday \u201ca big day for world peace\u201d on a social media post, claiming that Iran has \u201chad enough\u201d. He said the US will be \u201chelping with the traffic buildup\u201d in the strait of Hormuz, and that \u201cbig money will be made\u201d as Iran begins reconstruction.<\/p>\n In the statement on Truth Social, he added that the US would be just \u201changin\u2019 around\u201d in order to make sure everything goes well\u201d and that he was confident it would. He later added \u201cthis could be the Golden Age of the Middle East\u201d.<\/p>\n The two-week ceasefire with Iran<\/a> remains conditional in nature, and Washington has yet to publicly accept an invitation to talks planned for Friday in Islamabad.<\/p>\n Some points in Iran\u2019s 10-point plan for a ceasefire<\/a> have previously been rejected by the US in the past.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a000.21 EDT<\/p>\n Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese has welcomed a two-week ceasefire deal between the US and Iran that is set to temporarily reopen the strait of Hormuz, as he issued a rare criticism of Donald Trump<\/a> for threatening a \u201cwhole civilization will die\u201d.<\/p>\n The prime minister said news of the conditional ceasefire was \u201cvery positive\u201d and was hopeful it would lead to the permanent end to a conflict that has sent global fuel prices soaring.<\/p>\n In an interview with Sky News, Albanese said threatening to destroy civilian infrastructure was an \u201cextraordinary statement to make\u201d.<\/p>\n Anthony Albanese at a press conference in Canberra. Photograph: Mick Tsikas\/AAP<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s appropriate to use language such as that from the president of the United States. And I think it will cause some concern, which is there,\u201d the prime minister said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve said very clearly that the conduct of any conflict must be within international law and that provides for making sure that civilians \u2013 who aren\u2019t parties to the conflict \u2013 are given every protection possible.\u201d<\/p>\n Albanese would not be drawn on whether the bombing of civilian infrastructure would constitute a war crime, which is the view of legal experts and officials from numerous countries.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>Israel says ceasefire does not include Lebanon<\/p>\n Israel supports Donald Trump\u2019s decision to suspend strikes against Iran for two weeks, but said the ceasefire does not include Lebanon, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s office said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n The office said Israel backed the US move, provided Tehran immediately opens the strait of Hormuz and stops attacks against the United States, Israel and countries in the region.<\/p>\n The Pakistani prime minister, Shebaz Sharif, had previously said<\/a> the ceasefire extended over Lebanon.<\/p>\n Israeli attacks on Lebanon since the start of the war have killed more than 1,400 people, including 126 children, and displaced more than 1 million, according to Lebanese authorities. The renewed Israeli war on Lebanon was launched after Hezbollah \u2013 the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group \u2013 fired rockets into northern Israel<\/a> in response to the killing of the former Iranian supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, in joint US-Israeli airstrikes.<\/p>\n Israel also said it supports US efforts to ensure Iran<\/a> no longer poses a nuclear, missile or \u201cterror\u201d threat to US, Israel and Iran\u2019s Arab neighbours, adding that Washington had told Israel it was committed to achieving their shared goals in upcoming negotiations. Iran said on Wednesday negotiations with the US would begin on Friday 10 April in Islamabad.<\/p>\n Smoke rises following a reported Israeli strike, in southern Lebanon, on Tuesday. Photograph: Reuters\/StringerShare<\/a><\/p>\n Updated at\u00a000.35 EDT<\/p>\n Summary<\/p>\n Welcome to the Guardian\u2019s continuing coverage of the US-Israel war on Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n The United States and Iran have agreed to a two-week ceasefire barely an hour before Donald Trump\u2019s Wednesday deadline to obliterate the country was set to expire, with Tehran saying it will temporarily reopen the vital strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n Both sides claimed to have won the more than month-long conflict that has roiled global financial markets and sent oil prices skyrocketing, with Trump telling the AFP news agency the deal was a \u201ctotal and complete victory\u201d for the US.<\/p>\n Iran too cast the ceasefire as a win and said it had agreed to talks with Washington to begin Friday in Pakistan on a path to end the conflict.<\/p>\n \u201cThe enemy has suffered an undeniable, historic and crushing defeat in its cowardly, illegal and criminal war against the Iranian nation,\u201d said a statement from the Iranian Supreme National Security Council.<\/p>\n \u201cIran achieved a great victory.\u201d<\/p>\n The White House said Israel had also agreed to the ceasefire, but prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it does not include Lebanon, where Israeli assaults in response to rocket fire by Iranian-backed Hezbollah have led to more than 1,500 deaths, according to Lebanese authorities.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council said it had conditionally accepted a two-week ceasefire if attacks against Iran are halted.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s foreign minister said passage through the strait of Hormuz will be allowed for the next 2 weeks under Iranian military management.<\/p>\n Iranian state media said negotiations with the US would be held in Islamabad to finalise details of an agreement, with the aim of \u201cconfirming Iran\u2019s battlefield achievements\u201d. Talks will begin on Friday 10 April and may be extended, state media reported. State media also reported that talks with the US do not amount to the end of the war.<\/p>\n Pakistani prime minister Shebaz Sharif announced that Iran, the US and their allies agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere, including Lebanon. Sharif has been a key figure in attempting to reach a diplomatic solution between the two warring parties. In his statement, Sharif invited delegations to Islamabad on \u201cFriday, 10th April 2026, to further negotiate for a conclusive agreement to settle all disputes\u201d.<\/p>\n Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli welcomed the ceasefire but said fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon was not part of it.<\/p>\n Trump said Iran had proposed a \u201cworkable\u201d 10-point peace plan. According to Iranian state media, the ten-point proposal includes a number of conditions that the US has in the past rejected. Among them are controlled transit through strait of Hormuz coordinated with Iranian armed forces and withdrawal of all US forces from regional bases. The plan would also require the lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions, payment of full compensation to Iran and release of all frozen Iranian assets.<\/p>\n Iranian state media also said the 10-point plan for securing an end to the war would require Washington to accept its uranium enrichment program, a previous red line for the Trump administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n Even as the ceasefire was proposed, missile alerts continued in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Israel.<\/p>\n![\"Peter](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Peter_Beaumont,_L.png\")
Peter Beaumont<\/p>\nPeter Beaumont<\/p>\n![\"Justin](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Justin_McCurry,_L.png\")
Justin McCurry<\/p>\n![\"Lauren](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Lauren_Gambino.png\")
Lauren Gambino<\/p>\n