Trump Extends Ceasefire; Iran Attacks Three Vessels in Strait of Hormuz
President Trump has extended the two-week ceasefire in the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran by giving the nation another three to five days to agree to U.S. terms.
Last night on Truth Social, Trump disclosed that Pakistan had requested that the U.S. not attack Iran — as Trump had promised it would if no agreement were reached before the ceasefire ended — because Iranian officials are divided on a peace proposal.
Pakistan, Axios reported, is attempting to push Iran into new negotiations to end the war.
The announcement did not dissuade Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from seizing two ships and attacking a third in the Strait of Hormuz.
Disunity in Iran?
Vice President J.D. Vance and his negotiating team of Middle East envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, were scheduled to leave yesterday for Islamabad, Pakistan, for new talks. They never left because Iranian officials refused to participate. That might have precipitated another round of aerial bombings, as Trump had promised.
“I expect to be bombing” and “the military is raring to go,” Trump told CNBC’s Squawk Box.
But last night, Trump said, top Pakistanis urged him to hold off on ordering another attack.
“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,” Trump wrote:
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.
While Trump did not set a deadline for those two sides to settle their differences and present a proposal, Axios reported that the “warring faction” has “a short window to unify behind a coherent counter-offer — or the ceasefire he extended Tuesday ends,” as American officials told the website’s Barak Ravid, a former Israeli military intelligence operative.
“Trump is willing to give another three to five days of ceasefire to allow the Iranians to get their s**t together,” a source told Ravid. “It is not going to be open-ended.”
Trump’s negotiators believe a deal to end the war and address what’s left of Iran’s nuclear program is still achievable. But they also worry they may not have anyone in Tehran empowered to say yes.
Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is barely communicating. The IRGC generals now in control of the country and Iran’s civilian negotiators are openly at odds over strategy.
“We saw that there is an absolute fracture inside Iran between the negotiators and the military — with neither side having access to the supreme leader, who is not responsive,” a U.S. official said.
The site also reported that the IRGC’s chief, General Ahmad Vahidi, spurned what Iran’s negotiators discussed. On Friday, “when Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the IRGC refused to implement it — and began publicly attacking him.”
Since then, Iran has not responded to the most recent U.S. offer and has not committed to more talks. Axios reported:
The last 48 hours have been extremely frustrating for the White House — particularly for Vice President Vance, who had his suitcases packed for Islamabad to lead a second round of peace talks.
Instead, he found himself waiting for the IRGC generals now in control of Iran to let parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Araghchi travel to Pakistan to meet him.
Source: Trump Wants to End Unpopular War
On Monday evening, the Iranians appeared to have given Pakistani mediators the green light for talks. By Tuesday morning, that signal was gone, replaced by a demand that the U.S. lift its naval blockade.
Air Force Two sat for hours on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews, ready to depart — until it became clear the trip wasn’t happening.
Once Trump and his advisors learned how deeply the Iranians were divided, Trump decided for more diplomacy. “Several U.S. officials and Trump associates drew the same conclusion: the president thinks the U.S. has achieved everything it can militarily and wants out of the increasingly unpopular war. He won’t resume it until he has exhausted every other option.”
Trump, a source close to him told Axios, “doesn’t want to use military force anymore and has made a decision to end the war.” But that doesn’t mean Trump won’t order more bombing. If Iran refuses to come to the negotiating table, “the military option is back on the table.”
Iran is “collapsing financially,” Trump wrote late last night on Truth Social:
They want the Strait of Hormuz opened immediately- Starving for cash! Losing 500 Million Dollars a day. Military and Police complaining that they are not getting paid. SOS!!!
Maybe, but the IRGC is up and running. The United Kingdom’s Maritime Trade Operations, a branch of the Royal Navy, reported that two container ships were attacked in the Strait of Hormuz. One report said an IRGC gunboat fired on a ship.
“Iranian news media reported that the Guards had targeted two cargo vessels, the MSC Francesca and Epaminondas,” The New York Times reported, “and the force’s Navy later claimed to have seized the ships after they attempted to navigate ‘without the necessary permits.’”
IRGC attacked a third vessel, CNN reported, which is “now disabled off Iran’s coast.”
