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U.S. President Donald Trump said late Tuesday he\u2019s 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 \u201cwhole civilization will die tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019s oil is transported during peacetime. He also said Iran has proposed a \u201cworkable\u201d 10-point peace plan that could help end war the U.S. and Israel launched on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s 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. \u201cIt is emphasized that this does not signify the termination of the war,\u201d the council\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n
In a post on his social media site, Trump said that provided Iran agreed \u201cto the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz\u201d he would \u201csuspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the war began on Feb. 28, Trump has repeatedly backed off of deadlines just before they expire.<\/p>\n
In doing so again Tuesday, Trump said he had come to the decision \u201cbased on conversations\u201d with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Gen. Asim Munir, Pakistan\u2019s powerful army chief.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The president said in his social media post that Iran has presented \u201ca workable basis on which to negotiate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlmost 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,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
Earlier Trump threats raised alarms<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s expansive threat Tuesday 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\u00a0violate international law.<\/p>\n
Tehran\u2019s representative at the U.N., Amir-Saeid Iravani, said\u00a0the threats\u00a0\u201cconstitute incitement to war crimes and potentially genocide\u201d and that Iran would \u201ctake immediate and proportionate reciprocal measures\u201d if Trump launches devastating strikes.<\/p>\n
The U.S. and Israel have battered Iran with attacks targeting its military capabilities, leadership and nuclear program. Iran has\u00a0responded\u00a0with a stream of strikes on Israel and Gulf Arab neighbors,\u00a0causing regional chaos\u00a0and outsized\u00a0economic and political shock.<\/p>\n
Late Tuesday, Pakistan\u2019s 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 of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Before the deadline, airstrikes hit two bridges and a train station, and the U.S. hit military infrastructure on Kharg Island, a key hub for Iranian oil production.<\/p>\n
Trump has extended deadlines before<\/p>\n
Since the war began, Trump has repeatedly imposed deadlines linked to threats, only to extend them. Tehran previously rejected\u00a0a 45-day ceasefire proposal\u00a0by Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators, saying it wants a permanent end to the war.<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s president said 14 million people, including himself, have volunteered to fight. That\u2019s despite Trump saying that U.S. forces could\u00a0wipe out all bridges in Iran\u00a0in a matter of hours and reduce all power plants to smoking rubble in roughly the same time frame.<\/p>\n
It was not clear if airstrikes against Iran on Tuesday were linked to Trump\u2019s threats to widen the civilian target list. At least two of the targets were connected to Iran\u2019s rail network, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israeli warplanes struck bridges and railways in Iran.<\/p>\n
Tehran fired on Israel and Saudi Arabia, prompting the temporary closure of a major bridge.<\/p>\n
While Iran cannot match the sophistication of U.S. 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\u00a0raising the pressure on Trump\u00a0both at home and abroad to find a way out of the standoff.<\/p>\n
Trump keeps an off-ramp open<\/p>\n
\u201cA whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,\u201d if a deal isn\u2019t reached, Trump said in an online post Tuesday morning. But he also seemed to keep open the possibility of an off-ramp, saying that \u201cmaybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier, Iranian official Alireza Rahimi issued a video message calling on \u201call young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors\u201d to form human chains around power plants.<\/p>\n
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 kilometers (miles) from Tehran, though it was not clear how widespread the practice was.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not allowed to do that,\u201d Trump said in a phone call with NBC News.<\/p>\n
A general in Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard general warned that Iran would \u201cdeprive the U.S. and its allies of the region\u2019s oil and gas for years\u201d and expand its attacks across the Gulf region if Trump carries out his threat.<\/p>\n
In Tehran, the mood was bleak. A young teacher said that many opponents of Iran\u2019s Islamic system had hoped Trump\u2019s attacks would quickly topple it. As the war drags on, she fears U.S. and Israeli strikes will spread chaos.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we don\u2019t have the internet, and if we don\u2019t have electricity, water, and gas, we\u2019re really going back to the Stone Age, as Trump said,\u201d she told The Associated Press, speaking on the condition of anonymity for her safety.<\/p>\n
Growing criticism of threats<\/p>\n
In Rome, Pope Leo XIV said Tuesday that the threats were \u201ctruly unacceptable\u201d and that such attacks would violate international law.<\/p>\n
French Foreign Minister Jean-No\u00ebl Barrot said that attacks targeting civilian and energy infrastructure\u00a0could constitute a war crime. Such cases are notoriously difficult to prosecute. Trump has said he\u2019s \u201cnot at all\u201d concerned about committing war crimes.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was \u201cdeeply troubled\u201d by the threats, saying no military objective justified targeting civilian infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Airstrikes hit Iran, which fires on Saudi Arabia and Israel<\/p>\n
Intense airstrikes pounded Tehran, including in residential neighborhoods. In the past, such strikes have targeted Iranian government and security officials.<\/p>\n
The Israeli military said it attacked an Iranian petrochemical site in Shiraz, the second day in a row it hit\u00a0such a facility. The military later said it also struck bridges in several cities that were being used by Iranian forces to transport weapons and military equipment.<\/p>\n
A U.S. official, who spoke on 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.<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia said it intercepted seven ballistic missiles and four drones launched by Iran. Iran also fired on Israel.<\/p>\n
More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, but the government has not updated the toll for days.<\/p>\n
In Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants, more than 1,500 people\u00a0have been killed. and more than 1 million people\u00a0have been displaced. Eleven Israeli soldiers have died there.<\/p>\n
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 U.S.\u00a0service members\u00a0have been killed.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers John Leicester in Paris; Nicole Winfield in Rome; Amir-Hussein Radjy in Cairo; Natalie Melzer in Jerusalem; Farnoush Amiri at The United Nations; and Konstantin Toropin, Seung Min Kim, Michelle L. Price, Joshua Boak and Will Weissert in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
#Trump #agrees #2week #ceasefire #Iran #proposed #workable #10point #peace #plan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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