A two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran has halted 40 days of US-Israeli attacks on Iran that had pushed the region to the brink of a wider war.<\/p>\n
The truce, brokered by Pakistan, follows fierce exchanges of air strikes, missile attacks and threats that saw unprecedented strikes on Gulf nations, disrupted global shipping routes and heightened fears of a prolonged confrontation.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cBoth parties have displayed remarkable wisdom and understanding and have remained constructively engaged in furthering the cause of peace and stability,\u201d Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif posted on X, while announcing the cessation of hostilities.<\/p>\n Iran has also confirmed it will allow the resumption of shipping across the Strait of Hormuz during the two-week period, easing a disruption which had sent global oil and gas prices soaring. Israel has also announced it will halt its attacks on its longtime foe.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, many questions remain as Washington and Tehran remain poles apart on what they view as a comprehensive agreement, while Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait reported attacks just hours into the truce.<\/p>\n Robert Geist Pinfold, a political analyst, said the new US-Iran ceasefire deal remains very uncertain in scope and implementation.<\/p>\n \u201cOverall the issue with the ceasefire deal is everyone, as usual, is claiming victory and there are still continued violations of the ceasefire,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Pinfold, a lecturer in international security at King\u2019s College London, noted key details have yet to be clarified, including whether the agreement extends to Lebanon. \u201cIsrael maintains it will not. Pakistan maintains that it will,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Negotiations expected to begin in Islamabad on Friday will test whether this truce can be converted into a more durable arrangement.<\/p>\n So, what do we know about this two-week ceasefire and what happens next?<\/p>\n Under the terms of the ceasefire, the United States has agreed to halt its military strikes on Iran for an initial two-week period, claiming all of Washington\u2019s military objectives had been \u201cmet\u201d and Iran had agreed to the \u201ccomplete, immediate and safe opening\u201d of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n The strait is a key passageway for one-fifth of the world\u2019s oil and gas, which Tehran in effect closed in retaliation for the US-Israeli war launched on February 28.<\/p>\n Moreover, Trump said the US has received a 10-point proposal from Iran, which he called a \u201cworkable basis on which to negotiate\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cAlmost 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 finalised and consummated,\u201d he said on his social media platform Truth Social.<\/p>\n While the full 10-point plan has not been made public, Al Jazeera\u2019s Diplomatic Editor James Bays has reported that it includes the following:<\/p>\n But Trump insisted in comments to the AFP news agency that Iran\u2019s nuclear stockpile \u2060\u2060would be \u201ctaken care of\u201d in any peace deal.<\/p>\n \u201cThat \u2060\u2060will be perfectly taken care \u2060\u2060of, or I wouldn\u2019t have settled,\u201d Trump told AFP. Iran insists it is not seeking to build nuclear weapons, but says it is willing to negotiate limits on its nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief.<\/p>\n Trump also told AFP that China had helped bring Iran to the negotiating table, while Turkey and Egypt had also been mediating in recent days.<\/p>\n Later, in an interview with Sky News, Trump seemed to suggest that the 10-point plan that Iranian officials have formally leaked are different from the ones actually under negotiation.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re very good points \u2013 and most of them have been fully negotiated,\u201d he told Sky News. \u201cThey\u2019re not the maximalist demands that Iran is claiming.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf it [negotiations from here on] isn\u2019t good, we\u2019ll go right back to it [fighting] very easily,\u201d the US president added.<\/p>\n Pinfold said the ceasefire agreement was \u201cvery similar\u201d to what he described as the \u201cGaza peace plan\u201d, where a six-month \u201cceasefire\u201d exists despite near daily violation by the Israeli army.<\/p>\n \u201cAll sides seem to have basically agreed to disagree and have kicked a lot of their disagreements into the long grass. No one is really clear who has agreed to what for the time being.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the ceasefire announcement, neither the US leader nor his administration has made any mention of key sticking points mentioned in the 10-point plan, including the lifting of US sanctions, releasing frozen Iranian assets, control over the Strait of Hormuz or the withdrawal of US forces from the region.<\/p>\n However, later on Wednesday, Trump seemed to harden his stance, saying there will be \u201cno uranium enrichment\u201d, but Washington will have discussions with Tehran over tariff and sanctions relief.<\/p>\n The US military\u2019s top general, Dan Caine, said his forces were ready to resume attacks if ordered by Trump.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also warned that \u201cwe stand ready in the background to ensure that Iran upholds\u201d the terms of the ceasefire agreement.<\/p>\n In particular, the US made no mention of Iran\u2019s ballistic missile capabilities, a major feature in Iran\u2019s retaliation against US and Israeli forces. Previously, Washington had demanded that Iran curb or severely dismantle its ballistic missile programme.<\/p>\n Iran has made clear that its missile programme is not up for discussion.<\/p>\n Iran has accepted the ceasefire on the condition that US and Israeli attacks stop, agreeing to pause its own retaliatory strikes during the two-week window.<\/p>\n \u201cIf attacks against Iran are halted, our Powerful Armed Forces will cease their defensive operations,\u201d Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X.<\/p>\n Later on Wednesday, pro-Iran armed factions in Iraq also declared a two-week cessation of their attacks on \u201cenemy bases\u201d in the region.<\/p>\n Araghchi confirmed Trump\u2019s claims of providing safe passage to ships through the Strait of Hormuz for 14 days, adding that the resumption of activities along the strait will take place in coordination with Iranian armed forces.<\/p>\n The ceasefire plan also allows for both Iran and Oman to charge fees on ships transiting through the water passageway, AP news agency reported, quoting an unnamed regional official.<\/p>\n According to the official, the toll charged by Iran would be used for the reconstruction of the country.<\/p>\n Andreas Kreig, associate professor at Kings College London, said Iran believes it is in a \u201cmuch better bargaining situation than they were prior to the war\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have a high threshold of pain that the US cannot match,\u201d Kreig,\u00a0 told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is therefore likely that Iran will not be more willing to make concessions than in February. The question of enrichment was the point that led to the collapse of negotiation in February. Iran would want to make sure Trump surrenders this point.\u201d<\/p>\n While Israel endorsed the Pakistani-brokered ceasefire with Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it would not extend to its fighting with the Lebanese-armed group Hezbollah, or Israel\u2019s invasion of southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n Netanyahu\u2019s comments seemed to contradict Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif\u2019s claims, who said the ceasefire included a halt to Israel\u2019s attacks on Lebanon.<\/p>\n On Wednesday morning, the Israeli army continued its strikes in the country, issuing a new evacuation order for a building near the southern city of Tyre.<\/p>\n \u201cThe greatest threat to any ceasefire in the region remains Israel,\u201d Kings College\u2019s Krieg warned, adding that Israel prefers \u201cambiguous ceasefire\u201d deals that allow it to return to fighting \u201cwhen it feels the situation favours the Israeli army\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIran has to ensure that Israel has no easy way to return to its \u2018mowing the lawn\u2019 strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n Lebanon was drawn into the US and Israel\u2019s war on Iran on March 2 after Tehran-aligned Hezbollah launched attacks on Israel.<\/p>\n Hezbollah said the attacks were in retaliation for Israel\u2019s killing of Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war, on February 28, as well as Israel\u2019s near-daily violations of a ceasefire it agreed to in Lebanon in November 2024.<\/p>\n At least 1,497 people have been killed since the war erupted, including 57 health workers, Lebanese authorities say.<\/p>\n The immediate next step is the start of negotiations in Islamabad, where US and Iranian officials are expected to meet under Pakistani mediation.<\/p>\n \u201cI warmly welcome the sagacious gesture and extend deepest gratitude to the leadership of both the countries and invite their delegations to Islamabad on Friday, 10th April 2026, to further negotiate for a conclusive agreement to settle all disputes,\u201d Pakistani PM Sharif said.<\/p>\n Iran expert Trita Parsi said the potential talks in Islamabad could fail, \u201cbut the terrain has shifted\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump\u2019s failed use of force has blunted the credibility of American military threats, introducing a new dynamic into US-Iran diplomacy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWashington can still rattle its sabre. But after a failed war, such threats ring hollow. The United States is no longer in a position to dictate terms; any agreement will have to rest on genuine compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran has halted 40 days of US-Israeli attacks on Iran that had pushed the region to the brink of a wider war. The truce, brokered by Pakistan, follows fierce exchanges of air strikes, missile attacks and threats that saw unprecedented strikes on Gulf nations, disrupted global shipping […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
What has the US agreed to?<\/h2>\n
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What has Iran agreed to?<\/h2>\n
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What has Israel agreed to?<\/h2>\n
What happens next?<\/h2>\n
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