US president Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the US is extending the ceasefire with Iran at Pakistan’s request as he waits for a unified proposal from Iran.
“Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other,” he added.
Hugo Lowell and Joseph Gedeon have the full report:
Bessent’s statement about the blockade seems to somewhat contradict what Iran’s envoy to the UN said on Tuesday: that Tehran has “received some sign” that the US is ready to stop its blockade of Iranian ports.
Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani said that ending the blockade remains a condition for Iran to rejoin peace talks. He said when that happens, “I think the next round of the negotiations will take place”.
The US imposed the blockade to pressure Tehran into ending its stranglehold on the strait of Hormuz.
Taking another look at the continuing US Navy blockade of Iranian ports, about two hours ago the US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, posted this statement on X:
In a matter of days, Kharg Island storage will be full and the fragile Iranian oil wells will be shut in. Constraining Iran’s maritime trade directly targets the regime’s primary revenue lifelines.
Bessent said the US Treasury “will continue to apply maximum pressure through Economic Fury to systematically degrade Tehran’s ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds”.
He warned that any person or vessel facilitating these flows, through covert trade and finance, risked “exposure to US sanctions”.
Britain will host military planners from over 30 countries for two days of talks starting Wednesday on a multinational mission led by the UK and France to protect navigation in the strait of Hormuz, the defence ministry said.
The ministry said the meeting would “advance detailed planning” on reopening the strait when conditions allow, following “progress” at talks in Paris last week.
“The task today and tomorrow is to translate diplomatic consensus into a joint plan to safeguard freedom of navigation in the Strait and support a lasting ceasefire,” the defence minister, John Healey, said in a statement.
He said he was confident “real progress can be made”.
Looking back on Wall Street trading today, the S+P 500 erased an early rise to fall 0.6% after the JD Vance called off his trip to Pakistan for negotiations with Iran.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 293 points, or 0.6%, after erasing an earlier gain of 400 points, while the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.6%.
The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, will be part of the US delegation for upcoming direct talks between Israel and Lebanon, CNN is reporting.
Israel and Lebanon, which have no diplomatic relations, will hold fresh talks in Washington on Thursday, a state department official told Agence France-Presse.
A 10-day ceasefire was agreed between the two nations on Friday; it included Hezbollah.
Illustrating the butterfly effect of the strait of Hormuz closure, the Iran war has boosted demand to move vital cargo through the Panama canal to such an extent that one vessel carrying liquefied natural gas (LNGpaid $4m to skip the line and avoid a wait that can take up to five days, according to an official report.
A surge in such payments has been recorded since the US-Israeli attacks on Iran began 28 February. To meet fuel demand, Asia’s refineries are choosing to buy oil or gas from the US and ship it through the transoceanic waterway instead of purchasing from Gulf countries who rely on the strait of Hormuz, according to reports from the Panama Canal Authority.
Ships transiting the canal book their passage well in advance, and ships without bookings wait an average of five days to get through, but there is an auction where last-minute transits can be purchased.
The most recent auction included a $4m bid for an LNG vessel, and in recent weeks two oil tankers exceeded bids of $3m, the authority said.
Past average auction prices between October and February stood at around $130,000, and rose to $385,000 in March and April.
We’ll watch oil price movements, and how markets across Asia, due to open over the next couple of hours, react to Trump’s ceasefire extension.
To recap, shipping traffic through the strait of Hormuz remained broadly halted on Tuesday. Only three ships passed through the strait in the past 24 hours, shipping data showed.
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Donald Trump unilaterally announced an extension of the two-week ceasefire with Iran on Tuesday amid frantic efforts to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table. Hours after announcing that he “expected to be bombing”, the US president adopted a starkly different tone in a post on his Truth Social platform, saying he would extend the ceasefire until Iranian negotiators submitted a proposal for peace.
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The declaration came the same day an expected trip to Islamabad by JD Vance, the vice-president, had been put on hold. The delay came after Tehran failed to respond to the latest US negotiating positions. Vance’s trip will not be happening on Tuesday, per Reuters.
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Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked US president Donald Trump for accepting the country’s request to extend the ceasefire and “allow ongoing diplomatic efforts to take their course.”
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General Majid Mousavi, aerospace chief for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, threatened to end oil production in the Middle East if the Islamic republic faced attacks launched from its Gulf neighbours’ territory. “The southern neighbours should know that if their geography and facilities are used in the service of the enemies to attack the Iranian nation, they should bid farewell to oil production in the Middle East,” said Mousavi.
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Hezbollah said it launched an attack on northern Israel on Tuesday in retaliation for what it said were Israeli violations of a 10-day ceasefire. The Iran-backed group said in a statement that its fighters launched rockets and attack drones at a site in northern Israel that it said was the source of artillery shelling towards a south Lebanon town.
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Lebanon’s prime minister Nawaf Salam said the country would need 500m euros ($587m) over the next six months to deal with the humanitarian crisis that has seen 1.2m people displaced from Lebanon’s south, east and the southern suburbs of Beirut.
After Donald Trump announced an extension of the two-week ceasefire with Iran, Treasury secretary Scott Bessent reaffirmed on Tuesday that the US Navy will continue the blockade of Iranian ports.
“In a matter of days, Kharg Island storage will be full and the fragile Iranian oil wells will be shut in,” Bessent said in a post on X. “Constraining Iran’s maritime trade directly targets the regime’s primary revenue lifelines.”
He added that the US Treasury will “continue to apply maximum pressure through Economic Fury to systematically degrade Tehran’s ability to generate, move, and repatriate funds.”
“Any person or vessel facilitating these flows—through covert trade and finance—risks exposure to U.S. sanctions,” Bessent said.
The US last week imposed a blockade on Iranian ports to pressure Tehran into reopening the strait, and on Sunday it seized an Iranian cargo vessel.
Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif thanked US president Donald Trump for accepting the country’s request to extend the ceasefire and “allow ongoing diplomatic efforts to take their course.”
“I sincerely hope that both sides will continue to observe the ceasefire and be able to conclude a comprehensive ’Peace Deal’ during the second round of talks scheduled at Islamabad for a permanent end to the conflict,” Sharif said in a post on X.
An advisor to Iran’s parliament speaker and top negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said that US president Donald Trump’s ceasefire extension is a “ploy to buy time” for a surprise strike.
In a post on X, Qalibaf’s advisor, Mahdi Mohammadi, said that the continuation of the US blockade on Iranian ports was “no different from bombardment and must be met with a military response.”
Oil prices wavered just before US president Donald Trump announced he would extend the ceasefire to give Iran time to submit a proposal to end the war.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude went from less than $95 to roughly $100 during the day. It settled at $98.48, up 3.1%.
The S&P 500 erased an early rise to fall 0.6% after vice-president JD Vance called off a trip to Pakistan, where he was expected to lead US negotiators in talks with Iran to extend the ceasefire.
US president Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the US is extending the ceasefire with Iran at Pakistan’s request as he waits for a unified proposal from Iran.
“Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other,” he added.
Hugo Lowell and Joseph Gedeon have the full report:
General Majid Mousavi, aerospace chief for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, threatened to end oil production in the Middle East if the Islamic republic faced attacks launched from its Gulf neighbours’ territory.
“The southern neighbours should know that if their geography and facilities are used in the service of the enemies to attack the Iranian nation, they should bid farewell to oil production in the Middle East,” said Mousavi, Reuters reports.
US president Donald Trump said that the United States was considering helping the United Arab Emirates financially, and a currency swap with the Middle East nation was under consideration as the war with Iran disrupts the Gulf state’s economy, according to an interview with CNBC.
“If I could help them, I would,” the president said, referring to the currency swap. “It’s been a good country. It’s been a good ally of ours.”
“They’re really led by incredible people… I mean, I’m surprised, because they are really rich,” Trump said.
“If I could help them, I would, I mean, we’re helping them much more with what we’re doing with the war,” Trump said, referring to the US and Israel’s war with Iran.
Israel’s military has accused Hezbollah of a “blatant violation” of the Lebanon ceasefire agreement.
The Israel Defence Forces said Hezbollah fired several rockets towards its troops in southern Lebanon and in retaliation it struck the launcher from which the rockets were launched.
Hezbollah said it fired at an artillery position of the Israeli army in Kfar Giladi, northern Israel, on Tuesday in response to ceasefire breaches, Reuters reports.
The US imposed new sanctions on Tuesday targeting 14 people and companies that help Iran obtain weapons as Tehran works to rebuild its ballistic missile inventories after U.S.-Israeli attacks, the Treasury Department said.
The targets, which also include aircraft, are based in Iran, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates and were cited for their involvement in procuring or transporting weapons or components on Iran’s behalf, the Treasury said in a statement.
In the UK, prime minister Keir Starmer held talks with ministers and officials on the government’s work to ease pressures on the public caused by the conflict.
The Middle East Response Committee discussed ongoing contingency planning such as work with fuel suppliers, airlines and international counterparts, a government spokesperson said.
They also talked about diplomacy to support negotiations between the US and Iran, military planning as part of the post-war mission to keep the Strait of Hormuz open co-led with France, and wider measures such as efforts to weaken the link between gas and electricity prices.
Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said the US blockade of Iranian ports was an “act of war” and thus a violation of the ceasefire.
“Iran knows how to neutralize restrictions, how to defend its interests, and how to resist bullying,” he said in a post on X on Tuesday.
