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Donald Trump has pulled back on his threats to launch devastating strikes on Iran, less than two hours before a deadline he set for Tehran to capitulate or else a “whole civilization will die.” Trump said he was holding off on his threatened attacks on Iranian bridges, power plants and other civilian targets, subject to Tehran agreeing to a two-week ceasefire and reopening the strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped during peacetime.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said it had conditionally accepted a two-week ceasefire if attacks agains Iran are halted.
Iran’s foreign minister said passage through the strait of Hormuz will be allowed for the next two weeks under Iranian military management.
Iranian state media said negotiations with the US would be held in Islamabad to finalise details of an agreement, with the aim of “confirming Iran’s battlefield achievements”. 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.
Pakistan’s prime minister, Shebaz Sharif, announced that Iran, the US and their allies had 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 “Friday, 10th April 2026, to further negotiate for a conclusive agreement to settle all disputes”.
Trump said Iran had proposed a “workable” 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 withdrawal of all US forces from regional bases. The Iranian proposal would also require the lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions, payment of full compensation to Iran and release of all frozen Iranian assets.
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.
Even as the ceasefire was proposed, missile alerts continued in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Israel.
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Democrat voices skepticism over Trump’s ceasefire deal with Iran, saying each nation is claiming different terms– live | Trump administration
Democrats react to Iran ceasefire deal
Chris Murphy, the senior senator from Connecticut, said it does not appear the United States has actually reached a ceasefire agreement with Iran, since both countries are sharing different terms of the agreement. But, if the agreement that Iran believes it has entered into is true, that would be “cataclysmic for the world”.
In an appearance on CNN shortly after Donald Trump announced the ceasefire in a social media post, Murphy said: “Who knows what’s going on. Donald Trump lies every single day.”
But Murphy raised concerns about Iran’s explanation of the 10-point plan it shared with the United States, which suggests the strait of Hormuz would be regulated “under the coordination of the Armed Forces of Iran.”
Murphy added that the Iranian National Security Council claims “that Trump has also agreed to Iran’s right to enrichment, to suspend all sanctions against Iran, and to allow Iran to keep their missile program, their drone program and their nuclear program.”
“Now, who knows if any of that is true, but if, at the very least, this agreement gives Iran the right to control the strait that is cataclysmic for the world, and it is just stunning that that’s where we have gotten to that Donald Trump took a military action that has apparently, at least for the time being, given Iran control over a critical waterway that they did not have control over, before the war began.”
In a separate reaction to the ceasefire agreement, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said: “I’m glad Trump backed off and is desperately searching for any sort of exit ramp from his ridiculous bluster.”
Key events
Ryan Fonseca
More congressional Democrats are reacting to Donald Trump’s announcement of a two-week ceasefire with Iran.
“This statement changes nothing”, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a US representative from New York, posted on X Tuesday evening, adding that the push to invoke the 25th amendment and remove Trump from office should continue.
“The President has threatened a genocide against the Iranian people, and is continuing to leverage that threat”, Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “We cannot risk the world nor the wellbeing of our nation any longer. None of these considerations should be partisan, but shared in good faith by Americans of all backgrounds who care for the safety and stability of the United States. Whether by his Cabinet or Congress, the President must be removed from office. We are playing with the brink.”
Ro Khanna, a US representative from California, also weighed in on social media.
“Trump backed down”, he wrote. “No credit to Congress, which barely made a whimper.”
Khanna gave credit to both “progressive activists & anti-war conservative voices”, including former Fox News host Tucker Carlson and former US representative and Trump loyalist Marjorie Taylor-Green.
The White House has not answered messages from the Associated Press thus far this evening clarifying the 10-point peace plan Donald Trump described as “workable” in a social media post.
In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote: “We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate.”
Iran said the propsoal includes an easing of sanctions on the Islamic Republic and giving the country power over the strait of Hormuz.
Democrats react to Iran ceasefire deal
Chris Murphy, the senior senator from Connecticut, said it does not appear the United States has actually reached a ceasefire agreement with Iran, since both countries are sharing different terms of the agreement. But, if the agreement that Iran believes it has entered into is true, that would be “cataclysmic for the world”.
In an appearance on CNN shortly after Donald Trump announced the ceasefire in a social media post, Murphy said: “Who knows what’s going on. Donald Trump lies every single day.”
But Murphy raised concerns about Iran’s explanation of the 10-point plan it shared with the United States, which suggests the strait of Hormuz would be regulated “under the coordination of the Armed Forces of Iran.”
Murphy added that the Iranian National Security Council claims “that Trump has also agreed to Iran’s right to enrichment, to suspend all sanctions against Iran, and to allow Iran to keep their missile program, their drone program and their nuclear program.”
“Now, who knows if any of that is true, but if, at the very least, this agreement gives Iran the right to control the strait that is cataclysmic for the world, and it is just stunning that that’s where we have gotten to that Donald Trump took a military action that has apparently, at least for the time being, given Iran control over a critical waterway that they did not have control over, before the war began.”
In a separate reaction to the ceasefire agreement, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said: “I’m glad Trump backed off and is desperately searching for any sort of exit ramp from his ridiculous bluster.”
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council has accepted a two-week ceasefire in its war with the United States and Israel. Iranian officials will meet with the United States for talks in Islamabad beginning Friday.
“It is emphasized that this does not signify the termination of the war,” the council said in a statement. “Our hands remain upon the trigger, and should the slightest error be committed by the enemy, it shall be met with full force.”
Jonathan Yerushalmy
Even as Trump announces the outlines of a ceasefire agreement, Israel’s military has warned that Iran is firing missiles toward it.
The warning came just minutes after Trump said he had agreed to suspend a devastating attack on Iran by two weeks and was ready for a ceasefire in the war if Tehran completely reopens the vital strait of Hormuz.
The [Israeli army] identified missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel. Defensive systems are operating to intercept the threat.”
Blasts were heard from Jerusalem and Jericho on the occupied West Bank, AFP correspondents said.
The Israeli military told people in the areas affected by the incoming missile warnings to seek safety in bomb shelters.
Trump announces two-week ‘double sided’ ceasefire with Iran and ‘workable’ peace plan
Donald Trump will “suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks” following conversations with Pakistani leaders.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that he had agreed to this “double sided CEASEFIRE” because the United States has “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.” He added, “We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate.”
Trump said Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif and field marshal Asim Munir had brokered the agreement, which he also noted is subject to Iran opening the strait of Hormuz.
As Donald Trump’s 8pm ET deadline for Iran to reopen the strait of Hormuz approaches, demonstrators have gathered outside the White House to protest against the war in Iran.
Here are some images from the wires:
Elizabeth Warren, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, says Senate majority leader John Thune must reconvene the Senate so it can vote to stop the United States’s war in Iran.
“Congress needs to pull the emergency brake now. We should be voting to stop Trump’s war today,” Warren said in a newly released video.
“We don’t know what will happen tonight…But I do know that Congress has the power and the responsibility to end Trump’s war. Enough. Call your representatives. And tell these Republicans to grow a backbone and do their damn jobs.”
Lucy Campbell
US senator Ron Johnson, a close ally of Donald Trump, warned on Monday that the US president would lose his support if he struck Iran’s civilian infrastructure, as a small chorus of Republican unease begins to grow.
Speaking on the John Solomon Reports podcast on Monday, Johnson said: “I do not want to see us start blowing up civilian infrastructure.” He added: “I hope and pray that President Trump is just using this as bluster.”
After Trump’s staggering warning on Tuesday morning that Iran’s “whole civilisation will die”, Johnson told the Wall Street Journal that the president would forfeit his backing and it would be “a huge mistake” if he carried out his threat to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages”.
I think it would be a huge mistake. I mean, he loses me if he attacks civilian targets. Whatever we do has to be within the laws of warfare.
Most Republicans have stayed schtum on Trump’s threat, but a handful have urged caution and called for de-escalation.
Jason Carter, the grandson of former president Jimmy Carter and chair of The Carter Center Board of Trustees, denounced Donald Trump’s threat to annihilate a “whole civilization”. Jimmy Carter was president of the United States in 1979, during the Iran hostage crisis.
“If my grandfather were here he would challenge all Americans – Democrats, Republicans and especially Christians who worship the Prince of Peace – to stand up and say enough is enough. The Islamist government of Iran has been our enemy, including an enemy of my family, but the people of Iran have never been our enemy. This country must be better than Donald Trump’s unbridled and dangerous rhetoric,” said Jason Carter.
Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, has called on Donald Trump’s cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment, which removes a president who is deemed unfit for office.
“Donald Trump’s instability is more clear and dangerous than ever,” Pelosi said. “If the Cabinet is not willing to invoke the 25th Amendment and restore sanity, Republicans must reconvene Congress to end this war.”
So far today, more than 20 Democratic members of Congress have called for Trump’s cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have shot a man in central California’s Stanislaus County.
According to a Department of Homeland Security statement, agents were conducting a targeted traffic stop when the man, identified as Carlos Ivan Mendoza Hernandez, “weaponized his vehicle”. Former DHS secretary Kristi Noem repeatedly used the same phrase to describe the actions of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother who ICE agents fatally shot in Minneapolis earlier this year.
Acting ICE director Todd Lyons said officers fired defenisvely and claimed that Mendoza Hernandez is a gang member wanted for questioning in connection to a murder. Earlier this year, DHS claimed that two other people shot in Oregon were “vicious” gang members who had “attempted to run over” officers. Court records later showed those claims were false.
Mendoza Hernandez has been taken to a hospital though his condition remains unknown.
Iranian hackers target water and energy systems, says federal security agencies
Federal security agencies say that Iranian hackers have begun cyber-attacks aimed at water and energy systems in the United States hours after Donald Trump threatened “every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again.”
In a joint statement, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Agency and the Energy Department said hackers backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps had begun cyber-attacks on US power infrastructure.
Jodie Morrow went to the police after being harassed, but later found herself in custody.
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