Donald Trump announced in a social media post on Tuesday that he was indefinitely extending a ceasefire with Iran at the request of Pakistan, which has been mediating talks, until the country responded to the United States’ negotiating positions or until talks reached a dead end.
“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 US president wrote on Truth Social.
The move bought time for the US and Iran to continue pursuing a nuclear deal to end the war. Earlier on Tuesday, JD Vance called off his trip to Islamabad, citing a lack of response from Tehran about whether they would participate, according to people familiar with the matter.
The vice-president could travel immediately should Iran respond, the people said. On Tuesday afternoon, Vance was seen arriving at the White House for emergency meetings, which Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, was also set to attend.
Trump’s announcement extending the ceasefire marks a more conciliatory tone after he spent the weekend telling advisers he did not want to extend the ceasefire unless Iran reopened the strait of Hormuz, a position he repeated in an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box on Tuesday.
“I expect to be bombing because I think that’s a better attitude to go in with,” Trump said. “We’re ready to go. The military is raring to go.”
Asked if he would extend the ceasefire, he replied: “I don’t want to do that. We don’t have that much time.”
Despite his sharp tongue, Trump said he believed a deal was still possible. Trump’s negotiating team – led by Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner – has also expressed optimism that a deal could reached with Iran, people familiar with the matter said.
The previous round of negotiations in Islamabad was heavily focused on a possible deal in which the US would release $20bn in frozen funds or in equivalent sanctions relief if Iran transferred its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to the US, the people said.
Trump’s negotiators believe a cash-for-uranium deal has the best chance to succeed because money was the best incentive for Iran’s leaders as they grapple with an economy battered by sanctions and the economic costs of the current conflict, the people said.
Despite Trump agreeing to such a framework at the time – Vance liaised with the president throughout the process via conference call to make sure any deal had his blessing, the people said – on Friday he announced publicly he would not release any funds to Iran.
The whiplash and confusion between war and peace talk has become the hallmark of Trump’s approach to the war.
On Monday, Trump bounced between a potential deal being close and warning that “lots of bombs” would “start going off” if negotiations failed. Earlier in the month, he threatened extinction on “a whole civilization” of Iran, and that its civilians were actively welcoming US strikes on the country’s infrastructure.
Meanwhile in Tehran, Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, posted on X early on Tuesday that “we do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats”, while accusing Washington of seeking Iranian surrender rather than a genuine settlement.
