Washington — President Trump is extending the ceasefire in the war with Iran until talks between the U.S. and Iran are “concluded,” he announced Tuesday, despite previously saying he wouldn’t extend the deadline.
The president said he is granting the ceasefire extension at Pakistan’s request, and blamed Iran’s “seriously fractured” government for the delay. He said he is giving Iranian officials more time to “come up with a unified proposal.”
“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,” the president posted on Truth Social Tuesday afternoon.
Iran has not publicly reacted to the president’s extension.
The two-week ceasefire was originally set to expire Tuesday night, but Mr. Trump has said in recent days it would end Wednesday evening. Mr. Trump said previously that he wasn’t inclined to extend that deadline, and that the U.S.’s bombing campaign against Iran would resume upon the ceasefire’s conclusion.
Asked on CNBC Tuesday morning whether he would allow the ceasefire to continue if talks are going well, the president said, “I don’t want to do that. We don’t have that much time.”
“Well, I expect to be bombing, because I think that’s a better attitude to go in with,” he told CNBC. “But we’re ready to go. I mean, the military is raring to go.”
The U.S. and Iran agreed to a ceasefire two weeks ago, pausing hostilities and buying the two sides more time to negotiate.
Senior-level talks stalled after an initial meeting with U.S. and Iranian representatives in Islamabad, dashing hopes for further in-depth negotiations. After the first round of talks, Mr. Trump accused Iran of refusing to reach a deal on its nuclear program that the U.S. president views as acceptable.
Both sides have accused each other of violating the ceasefire, with Iran blocking ships from transiting the Strait of Hormuz while the U.S. blockades Iranian ports.
On Monday, the president said Vice President JD Vance, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were on their way to Islamabad, although that wasn’t the case. A White House official said a senior U.S. delegation “plans to travel to Islamabad soon.” But by the president’s announcement of a ceasefire extension Tuesday, Vance was still in Washington.
The president has shifted his messaging on the state of negotiations in recent days. On Friday, he said Iran has “agreed to everything,” something that didn’t bear out in Iran’s own messaging. The Iranian Foreign Ministry insisted uranium will not be transferred to the U.S., despite Mr. Trump’s claim that the U.S. would “take” the country’s enriched uranium.
The U.S. is now more than seven weeks into what administration officials initially said would be a four-to-six-week campaign in Iran, beginning when the U.S. and Israel struck Iranian targets in late February.
