US President Donald Trump said he’s pulling back on his threats to launch devastating strikes on Iran, swerving to deescalate the war less than two hours before the deadline he set for Tehran to capitulate or else a "whole civilization will die tonight".
Trump said he was holding off on his threatened attacks on Iranian bridges, power plants and other civilian targets, subject to Tehran agreeing to a two-week ceasefire and reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the pivotal waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported during peacetime. He also said Iran has proposed a "workable" 10-point peace plan that could help end war the US and Israel launched on February 28.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said it has accepted a two-week ceasefire in the war and that it would negotiate with the United States in Islamabad beginning Friday.
"It is emphasized that this does not signify the termination of the war," the council's statement said.
Trump agrees to two-week ceasefire if Iran opens Strait of Hormuz - Watch on TVNZ+
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said passage through the Strait of Hormuz would be allowed for the next two weeks under Iranian military management. It wasn’t immediately clear whether that meant Iran would loosen its chokehold on the waterway crucial to global energy supplies.
In a post on his social media site, Trump said that he would suspend attacks on Iran for two weeks provided Tehran agreed “to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING" of the strait.
Even as the ceasefire was announced, missile alerts continued in the United Arab Emirates and Israel early Wednesday, hinting at the chaos surrounding the diplomatic moves.
Since the war began on February 28, Trump has repeatedly backed off of deadlines just before they expire.
In doing so again, Trump said he had come to the decision "based on conversations" with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and General Asim Munir, Pakistan’s powerful army chief.
Sharif, in a post on X hours earlier, urged Trump to extend his deadline by two weeks to allow diplomacy to advance. He used the same post to ask Iran to open the strait for two weeks.
The president said in his social media post that Iran has presented "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," Trump said.
Trump's expansive threat did not seem to account for potential harm to civilians, prompting Democrats in Congress, some United Nations officials and scholars in military law to say such strikes would violate international law.
Tehran’s representative at the UN, Amir-Saeid Iravani, said the threats "constitute incitement to war crimes and potentially genocide" and that Iran would "take immediate and proportionate reciprocal measures" if Trump launches devastating strikes.
As Trump's deadline neared, an official said indirect talks continued between the United States and Iran.
Pakistan's prime minister urged Trump to extend his deadline by two weeks to allow diplomacy to advance. In a post on X, Shehbaz Sharif, whose country has been leading negotiations, also asked Iran to open up for two weeks the strait through which a fifth of the world's oil transits in peacetime. The White House said Trump had been informed of the proposal and would respond.
Even before the deadline, airstrikes hit two bridges and a train station, and the US hit military infrastructure on Kharg Island, a key hub for Iranian oil production.
Trump has extended deadlines before
Since the war began, Trump has repeatedly imposed deadlines linked to threats, only to extend them. But the president insisted this one is final and will expire at 8pm (local time) in Washington unless there is a major diplomatic breakthrough. Tehran has rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal, saying it wants a permanent end to the war.
Iran’s president said 14 million people, including himself, have volunteered to fight. That’s despite Trump saying that US forces could wipe out all bridges in Iran in a matter of hours and reduce all power plants to smoking rubble in roughly the same time frame.
1News’ Logan Church speaks from Washington DC, after NZ’s Foreign Minister met the senior member of Donald Trump’s administration. (Source: Breakfast)
It was not clear if airstrikes against Iran on Tuesday were linked to Trump’s threats to widen the civilian target list. At least two of the targets were connected to Iran’s rail network, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli warplanes struck bridges and railways in Iran.
Tehran fired on Israel and Saudi Arabia, prompting the temporary closure of a major bridge.
While Iran cannot match the sophistication of US and Israeli weaponry or their dominance in the air, its chokehold on the strait since the war began in late February is roiling the world economy and raising the pressure on Trump both at home and abroad to find a way out of the standoff.
Trump keeps an off-ramp open
The US President said on social media that Iran has just hours to make a deal or face the fiercest and most aggressive attacks yet. (Source: Breakfast)
"A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again," if a deal isn’t reached, Trump said in an online post Wednesday morning. But he also seemed to keep open the possibility of an off-ramp, saying that "maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen".
Earlier, Iranian official Alireza Rahimi issued a video message calling on “all young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors” to form human chains around power plants.
Iranians have formed human chains in the past around nuclear sites at times of heightened tensions with the West. State media posted videos online that showed hundreds of flag-waving people massed at two bridges and at a power plant hundreds of km from Tehran, though it was not clear how widespread the practice was.
"They’re not allowed to do that," Trump said in a phone call with NBC News.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on X that 14 million Iranians had answered campaigns urging people to volunteer to fight — and said he would join them — while a Revolutionary Guard general urged parents to send their children to man checkpoints.
The Guard warned that Iran would “deprive the US and its allies of the region’s oil and gas for years” and expand its attacks across the Gulf region if Trump carries out his threat.
In Tehran, the mood was bleak. A young teacher said that many opponents of Iran’s Islamic system had hoped Trump’s attacks would quickly topple it. As the war drags on, she fears US and Israeli strikes will spread chaos.
“If we don’t have the internet, and if we don’t have electricity, water, and gas, we’re really going back to the Stone Age, as Trump said,” she told The Associated Press, speaking on the condition of anonymity for her safety.
Growing criticism of threats
In Rome, Pope Leo XIV said Wednesday that the threats were "truly unacceptable" and that such attacks would violate international law.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said that attacks targeting civilian and energy infrastructure could constitute a war crime. Such cases are notoriously difficult to prosecute. Trump has said he’s “not at all” concerned about committing war crimes.
However, Iran says US strikes are killing civilians, as the American president faces mounting scrutiny over whether targeting civilian infrastructure violates international law. (Source: 1News)
Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said he deplored the rhetoric being used over the last two weeks "by all parties".
Airstrikes hit Iran, which fires on Saudi Arabia and Israel
Intense airstrikes pounded Tehran, including in residential neighbourhoods. In the past, such strikes have targeted Iranian government and security officials.
The Israeli military said it attacked an Iranian petrochemical site in Shiraz, the second day in a row it hit such a facility. The military later said it also struck bridges in Tehran, Karaj, Tabriz, Kashan and Qom that were being used by Iranian forces to transport weapons and military equipment.
A US official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, described the strikes on Kharg Island as hitting targets previously struck and not directed at oil infrastructure.
Overnight the US President Donald Trump threatened that a "whole civilization will die tonight" if Iran fails to meet his latest deadline to strike a deal. (Source: Breakfast)
Saudi Arabia said it intercepted seven ballistic missiles and four drones launched by Iran. Saudi Arabia also temporarily closed the King Fahd Causeway, the only road connection between Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, and the Arabian Peninsula. Iran also fired on Israel.
More than 1900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but the government has not updated the toll for days.
In Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, more than 1500 people have been killed and more than 1 million people have been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there.
In Gulf Arab states and the occupied West Bank, more than two dozen people have died, while 23 have been reported dead in Israel, and 13 US service members have been killed.
Additional reporting by 1News.
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