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In the final hours before a United States-Iran ceasefire was reached early on Wednesday in the Middle East, the war that had shaken the world for nearly six weeks had threatened to explode to even more prolonged and devastating levels.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump issued increasingly apocalyptic warnings, including threats deemed genocidal, that he would obliterate Iran\u2019s infrastructure and a \u201cwhole civilisation\u201d would die if his deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by 8pm Washington, DC, time on Tuesday (midnight GMT) was not heeded by Tehran.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n A day earlier, Trump had also threatened to bomb Iran back to the \u201cStone Ages\u201d.<\/p>\n World leaders expressed horror over his language, global markets tanked and some started pondering whether the Trump White House was perhaps even contemplating the use of nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n Eventually, over the course of a tense Tuesday, last\u2011minute diplomacy mediated by Pakistan culminated in a two\u2011week ceasefire less than 90 minutes before Trump\u2019s self\u2011imposed deadline to carry out large-scale, devastating attacks on Iran. Israel also agreed to halt its attacks but said Lebanon was not included in the deal.<\/p>\n The truce was announced after both sides agreed to stop all attacks and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Talks in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Friday are slated to restart negotiations for a permanent settlement.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Trump suggested in a Truth Social post that the ceasefire could usher in a \u201cGolden Age for the Middle East\u201d.<\/p>\n But through Tuesday as Trump\u2019s self-imposed deadline approached, the region and the world were on edge as threats, counterthreats, escalatory attacks from both sides and diplomatic efforts intensified all at once, and it was unclear which would triumph \u2013 negotiations or further devastation.<\/p>\n Here are the key moments of the tense final hours leading up to this fragile ceasefire:<\/p>\n On Tuesday morning, Trump warned in a post on his social media platform Truth Social that Washington would unleash devastating strikes on Iranian bridges, power plants and other civilian infrastructure.<\/p>\n Trump even declared that \u201ca whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again\u201d \u2013 a phrase that legal and human rights experts said was akin to a \u201cgenocidal\u201d threat.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a plan, because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated \u2026 where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Iran\u2019s semiautonomous Mehr news agency confirmed reports that Kharg Island, where Iran\u2019s main oil exporting facilities are based, had been hit but added that there had been no damage to infrastructure and the situation was under control.<\/p>\n \u2060During \u2060\u2060\u2060\u2060a vote in the United Nations Security Council, China and Russia vetoed \u2060\u2060a Bahraini resolution encouraging states to coordinate efforts to protect commercial shipping \u200c\u200c\u200c\u200cin the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n Eleven countries on the 15-member council voted in favour of the resolution, two abstained and \u2060\u2060\u2060\u2060two voted against it \u2013 China \u2060\u2060\u2060\u2060and Russia, which, as permanent members, have veto power in the UN\u2019s highest decision-making body.<\/p>\n Moscow and Beijing argued the draft was one\u2011sided and unfair to Tehran. China\u2019s UN ambassador, Fu\u202fCong, said moving ahead with the proposal while the US was issuing threats about the possible destruction of an entire civilisation would have conveyed the wrong signal.<\/p>\n Qatar\u2019s Ministry of Defence said it \u201csuccessfully intercepted a missile attack\u201d targeting the country.<\/p>\n This followed an \u201celevated\u201d threat alert that was sent out and subsequent sounds of missile interception over the capital, Doha.<\/p>\n Nearly half an hour earlier, the United Arab Emirates also reported a barrage of missile and drone attacks on its territory.<\/p>\n Reza Amiri Moghadam said in a post on X that \u201cas of now\u201d, there has been \u201ca step forward from [a] critical, sensitive stage\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the next stage, respect and comity should replace rhetoric and redundancy. Stay more tuned,\u201d the Iranian ambassador to Pakistan added.<\/p>\n Moghadam earlier in the day had referred to Pakistan\u2019s \u201cpositive and productive endeavours\u201d towards peace and said talks had entered a \u201ccritical\u201d stage \u2013 the first official confirmation from Iran that it was engaged in formal negotiations with the US.<\/p>\n Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appealed to Trump to push back his deadline for an Iran deal by two weeks and for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz during the same period, saying ongoing diplomatic efforts were promising and should be given a chance.<\/p>\n \u201cDiplomatic efforts for [a] 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 [the] near future,\u201d Sharif wrote in a post on X. \u201cTo allow diplomacy to run its course, I earnestly request President Trump to extend the deadline for two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n Sharif also called on Tehran to open the Strait of Hormuz for the same two weeks \u201cas a goodwill gesture\u201d.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Iranian military\u2019s Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, Ebrahim Zolfaghari, warned the country would target the energy infrastructure of the US and its Gulf allies in the region, Fars news agency reported.<\/p>\n The official said Iran would seek to deprive the region of oil and gas for years with the aim of forcing US forces and their partners to withdraw.<\/p>\n The deputy security officer of Khuzestan province announced that the Amirkabir Petrochemical Plant in the port city of Mahshahr was struck in an air strike, Mehr reported, adding that local authorities were assessing the extent of the damage and potential casualties.<\/p>\n With less than an hour and a half to go to his deadline for the destruction of Iranian \u201ccivilisation\u201d, Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran after talks with Sharif and Pakistan\u2019s military chief, Asim Munir.<\/p>\n He said the ceasefire would be \u201cdouble-sided\u201d and Washington had received a \u201cworkable\u201d 10-point proposal from Iran.<\/p>\n Twenty-five minutes later, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed Trump\u2019s announcement and added that Tehran would abide by the temporary truce if attacks on its territory were halted.<\/p>\n In a post on X, Sharif invited Iranian and US delegations to Islamabad on Friday \u201cto further negotiate for a conclusive agreement to settle all disputes\u201d.<\/p>\n A week earlier, Trump had threatened to bomb Iran back to the \u201cStone Ages\u201d. Hours after he announced the two-week ceasefire with Iran, his tone had changed.<\/p>\n \u201cA big day for World Peace! Iran wants it to happen, they\u2019ve had enough! Likewise, so has everyone else!\u201d he wrote on Truth Social. \u201cJust like we are experiencing in the U.S., this could be the Golden Age of the Middle East!!!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In the final hours before a United States-Iran ceasefire was reached early on Wednesday in the Middle East, the war that had shaken the world for nearly six weeks had threatened to explode to even more prolonged and devastating levels. US President Donald Trump issued increasingly apocalyptic warnings, including threats deemed genocidal, that he would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-explained"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18126","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=18126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
12:06 GMT, Tuesday \u2013 Trump\u2019s threat to Iran\u2019s civilisation<\/h2>\n
15:21 GMT, Tuesday \u2013 US strikes hit Kharg Island<\/h2>\n
15:40 GMT, Tuesday \u2013 China, Russia Security Council veto on Strait of Hormuz<\/h2>\n
16:54 GMT, Tuesday \u2013 Qatar and UAE send elevated alerts<\/h2>\n
18:23 GMT, Tuesday \u2013 Iran\u2019s envoy to Pakistan reports \u2018step forward\u2019 after \u2018sensitive stage\u2019<\/h2>\n
19:17 GMT, Tuesday \u2013 Pakistan\u2019s PM asks Trump to extend deadline<\/h2>\n
20:25 GMT, Tuesday \u2013 Iran threatens to block regional oil and gas<\/h2>\n
20:41 GMT, Tuesday \u2013 US and Israeli air strikes on energy plant in southwest Iran<\/h2>\n
22:45 GMT, Tuesday \u2013 Trump announces temporary ceasefire<\/h2>\n
04:01 GMT, Wednesday \u2013 Trump says ceasefire could lead to \u2018Golden Age\u2019 for Middle East<\/h2>\n
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