Key Points
- Iran confirmed a two-week ceasefire with the US, reopening the Strait of Hormuz to shipping traffic after weeks of closure.
- Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif brokered the truce and invited both delegations to Islamabad on Friday to continue negotiations.
- Iran submitted a 10-point proposal that Washington described as a workable basis for talks, with Tehran seeking full sanctions relief.
The Strait of Hormuz is open again, at least for now. Iran confirmed a two-week ceasefire with the United States early Wednesday, ending weeks of closure on one of the world’s most consequential waterways and stepping back from the edge of a wider conflict that had rattled energy markets and alarmed governments across the region.
Iran signals compliance, with conditions
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed that safe passage through the strait would be possible under the ceasefire, saying the arrangement was reached in coordination with Iran’s armed forces and with what he described as “due consideration of technical limitations.” The confirmation came from Tasnim news agency, which has close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The strait, a narrow chokepoint connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman, has been largely closed since the United States and Israel launched large-scale attacks on Iran on Feb. 28. Its closure sent tremors through global oil and gas markets, which depend on the passage for a significant share of daily energy trade.
Trump’s ultimatum and the deadline
U.S. President Donald Trump had made reopening the Strait of Hormuz a non-negotiable condition for any ceasefire, threatening to strike Iran’s energy infrastructure and bridges if Tehran missed a deadline of midnight GMT. He held firm until Pakistan stepped in.
Trump said Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif personally asked him to hold off on the threatened strikes. The U.S. president described the emerging arrangement as a “double sided CEASEFIRE” and said Israel had agreed to observe it as well, according to a senior U.S. official briefed on the talks.
Pakistan’s quiet diplomacy pays off
Sharif announced the breakthrough on X, saying Iran and the United States, along with their respective allies, had agreed to “an immediate ceasefire everywhere,” including in Lebanon.
He extended an invitation to both delegations to travel to Islamabad on Friday to continue negotiations toward what he called a conclusive settlement of all disputes.
“I warmly welcome the sagacious gesture and extend deepest gratitude to the leadership of both countries,” Sharif wrote.
Pakistan’s role as a back-channel mediator between Tehran and Washington has drawn quiet acknowledgment from both sides, a rare diplomatic win in a relationship that has lurched between near-war and stalled nuclear talks for years.
Iran’s 10-point proposal
On the substance of a longer-term deal, Washington said it had received a 10-point proposal from Iran and believed it offered a workable basis for negotiations.
The New York Times reported that the plan includes a call to lift all sanctions imposed on Iran, a demand Tehran has made central to every round of diplomacy in recent years.
Whether that gap can be bridged remains the central question. A two-week truce is a pause, not a peace. Both sides have walked back from similar openings before.
What is different this time, at least momentarily, is that ships can move through the Strait of Hormuz again, oil traders have exhaled slightly and Pakistani diplomats are quietly taking credit for keeping a volatile situation from boiling over.
