Trump backs ceasefire as the 10-point peace plan comes into play, but key details still missing

Washington: US President Donald Trump backed down from his threats to unleash carnage on Iran, agreeing to a two-week ceasefire contingent on Tehran reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and claiming a full peace agreement was close to fruition.

The White House declared victory in the war, which has lasted for 38 days. But within hours, there were signs that the truce was shaky, with air raid sirens sounding in Tel Aviv, and Israel claiming the ceasefire did not apply in Lebanon – contradicting mediators.

Trump’s decision came hours after he threatened that “a whole civilisation will die tonight” unless Iran struck a deal, prompting widespread concern about his rhetoric and the level of destruction he was prepared to unleash on Iran’s infrastructure and population.

Iran said it had agreed to the two-week ceasefire, provided the attacks against it were halted. It said its armed forces would co-ordinate safe passage through the strait “with due consideration of technical limitations”.

A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told this masthead Israel had also agreed to the ceasefire.

Later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel supported Trump’s decision to suspend strikes against Iran, but warned the ceasefire did not include Lebanon. That contradicted an earlier statement from Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country was a key mediator.

It was not immediately clear what terms Trump had agreed to, but he said negotiations would be based on a “workable” 10-point plan by Iran. Such a proposal was made by Tehran earlier in the week and dismissed by Trump at the time as a significant step but “not good enough”.

The demands reportedly include compensation for Iran’s reconstruction costs, a commitment to lift sanctions against Iran and a guarantee of no further attacks.

With about 90 minutes until his self-imposed deadline, Trump said on social media that because of requests made by Sharif – and subject to Iran reopening the strait – he had agreed to suspend his planned bombing of Iran’s power plants and bridges for two weeks.

“This will be a double-sided CEASEFIRE!” he posted. “The reason for doing so is that we have 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.

“We received a 10 point proposal from Iran, and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate. Almost 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 finalized and consummated.”

Shortly afterwards, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi published a statement from the country’s Supreme National Security Council saying that “if attacks against Iran are halted, our Powerful Armed Forces will cease their defensive operations”.

“For a period of two weeks, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via co-ordination with Iran’s Armed Forces and with due consideration of technical limitations,” Araghchi said.

Sharif said the ceasefire would start immediately and apply to all theatres of the war, including Lebanon, where Israel had been bombarding Hezbollah targets in the country’s south. He invited delegations from the US and Iran to meet for talks in Islamabad on Friday.

But Netanyahu’s office said: “The two-weeks ceasefire does not include Lebanon.” It also stressed that the US was still committed to the goals of ensuring Iran could no longer pose a nuclear, missile and terror threat to America, Israel, Iran’s Arab neighbours and the world.

Danny Citrinowicz, a senior researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies, said the ceasefire might signal the beginning of the end of the war, “but given the deep mistrust between the parties, it must be treated with extreme caution.

“Until a ceasefire is fully in place, there is no ceasefire,” he said on X. “We are still operating in the dark. Key details are missing, especially what was actually promised to Iran.”

Despite the ceasefire, things are unlikely to get back to normal in a hurry at the Strait of Hormuz.

Global shipping giant Maersk said the two-week ceasefire did not yet provide enough security certainty to resume normal operations. “At this point, we take a cautious approach, and we are not making any changes to specific services,” the Danish shipping group said in a statement to Reuters.

Meanwhile, the head of a body representing global airlines warned it would take months for jet fuel supply to recover even if Iran reopened the Strait of Hormuz, given the disruptions to Middle East refining capacity.

Willie Walsh, director general of International Air Transport Association (IATA) told reporters in Singapore that while he expected crude oil prices to fall, jet fuel costs were likely to remain slightly elevated due to the impact of the hostilities so far on refineries.

Cautious welcome

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday welcomed the US-Iran ceasefire and said it should serve as a basis for permanent de-escalation.

“This is positive news. We’ve been calling for a de-escalation for some time,” Albanese told Sky News.

The ceasefire has also been cautiously welcomed by world leaders, with Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, saying the ceasefire deal was “a step back from the brink after weeks of escalation”.

“It creates a much-needed chance to tone down threats, stop missiles, restart shipping, and create space for diplomacy towards a lasting agreement,” she added.

“I welcome the two-week ceasefire the US and Iran agreed last night. It brings much needed de-escalation,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on social media platform X, adding it was crucial negotiations continue for an enduring solution.

French President Emmanuel Macron said it was good news Iran would work on opening the Strait of Hormuz, while the German foreign minister said on X: “I welcome the decision by involved parties to agree to ceasefire in Iran conflict.”

The Saudi and Omani foreign ministries applauded the news of the ceasefire on X. Oman pledged to support efforts towards enduring security.

Lead up to the ceasefire

Earlier in the day, developments indicated that a deal of sorts might be under way. Several Westerners detained by Iran and its regional proxies were released in an apparent goodwill gesture amid the ongoing negotiations.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced two French citizens, Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, had been freed and were returning to France after 3½ years of detention in Iran. Macron thanked Omani authorities for their mediation efforts.

Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed terrorist group in Iraq, also said it would release American journalist Shelly Kittleson, whom it kidnapped on a Baghdad street last week, on the condition she left Iraq immediately.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed Kittleson’s release and said she was being assisted to depart Iraq.

The two-week ceasefire was publicly proposed on Tuesday (US time) by Sharif, who called for Trump to extend his deadline and for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz as a goodwill gesture.

US Vice President JD Vance, who was visiting Hungary to campaign for the re-election of its right-wing prime minister, Viktor Orban, was also involved in last-minute negotiations – as was China, a revelation that was first reported by the Associated Press.

Trump told Agence France-Presse in a phone interview that he had heard Beijing played a role in getting its Iranian ally to agree to the truce. He also declared a “total and complete victory” over Iran and said Tehran’s stocks of highly enriched uranium would be “perfectly taken care of”.

Earlier, as Trump’s notional 8pm Tuesday (Washington time) deadline approached, Vance and a White House official confirmed the US had struck additional military targets on Iran’s Kharg Island, through which about 90 per cent of Iran’s oil exports ordinarily pass. Reports in US media outlets said dozens of targets were hit.

Israel also launched fresh attacks on Iranian railway tracks and bridges. In a video, Netanyahu claimed the targets were used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to transport weapons and raw materials.

Trump’s backdown came after he issued an incendiary social media post that was widely seen as a negotiating tactic but which also alarmed international law experts, policy analysts, Democrats and some Republicans.

“A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social page on Tuesday morning (Washington time).

“However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalised minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily [sic] wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?”

Although Trump did not follow through with his threats, his extraordinary rhetoric continued to be scrutinised, with his political opponents – and some allies – saying it would cause lasting damage to the image of the US and the American presidency.

Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer called Trump a “sick person”. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican senator from Alaska who often differs from Trump, said his threat could not be excused as an attempt to gain leverage.

“This type of rhetoric is an affront to the ideals our nation has sought to uphold and promote around the world for nearly 250 years,” she said on X. “It undermines our long-standing role as a global beacon of freedom and directly endangers Americans both abroad and at home.”

Karim Sadjadpour, a senior fellow and Iran expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Trump’s threats to destroy Iranian civilisation would ultimately be a gift to the regime.

“They will alienate even its fiercest opponents, who believe the Islamic Republic has spent decades erasing 2500 years of Iranian civilisation,” he said. “It’s malpractice for the US president to threaten the same.”

With Reuters and AP

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