Updated April 7, 2026 at 6:47 PM PDT
The U.S. and Iran reached a ceasefire deal on Tuesday, less than two hours before the deadline President Trump imposed for Iran to meet his demands or else face wide-scale destruction.
As part of the agreement, set to take effect immediately, Trump said the U.S. and Israel would suspend bombing Iran for two weeks, subject to Iran following through on its commitment to reopen the Strait of Hormuz for safe passage during the ceasefire period.
The negotiations — facilitated by Pakistan — mark a breathtaking comedown from Trump's pledge made early Tuesday that a "whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again" if a deal could not be reached by 8 p.m. ET to open the strait.
In announcing the deal, Trump wrote on his social media platform: "This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE! The reason for doing so is that we have already met and exceeded all Military objectives, and are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran, and PEACE in the Middle East."
The president added that Iran has proposed a "workable" 10-point peace plan that includes what he described as "points of past contention," which "have been agreed to between the United States and Iran." The extra time, he said, will allow the agreement to be finalized.
Iranian leaders are also touting the ceasefire as a victory, noting that the "criminal U.S." has agreed to "the general framework" of Iran's 10-point proposal.
"Good news to the dear nation of Iran! Nearly all the objectives of the war have been achieved," the Supreme National Security Council said in a statement.
According to Iranian officials, the proposal—delivered to the United States via Pakistan— requires the lifting of all sanctions and UN resolutions against Iran, alongside the release of Iranian assets held overseas. Other demands include the withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from military bases across the region, compensation in the form of estimated reparations, and Iran's right to nuclear enrichment.
Iran officials warned that any deviation from the agreement could lead to future violence.
"Our hands are on the trigger, and the moment the enemy makes the slightest mistake, it will be met with full force," the Supreme National Security Council said.
Iran's foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi thanked Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif for his role in the negotiations.
"If attacks against Iran are halted our Powerful Armed Forces will cease their defensive operations," Araghchi said in a statement. He added: "For a period of two weeks, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via coordination with Iran's Armed Forces and with due consideration of technical limitations."
Sharif, who has been acting as an intermediary between Tehran and Washington, said the ceasefire will take effect immediately, and includes "Lebanon and elsewhere." The prime minister will remain at the forefront of negotiations in the coming week. He has invited delegations from the U.S. and Iran to "settle all disputes" in continued diplomatic talks in Islamabad on Friday, April 10.
"Both parties have displayed remarkable wisdom and understanding and have remained constructively engaged in furthering the cause of peace and stability," Sharif wrote in a post on X, and expressed optimism that the Islamabad talks would result in sustainable peace.
Prior to the ceasefire agreement, Trump had threatened to destroy bridges, power plants and water treatment facilities; moves that would imperil the entire population of Iran. Wide-scale destruction of infrastructure, without any distinction between civilian and military targets, would be considered a war crime under international and U.S. law, legal experts tell NPR.
Here are more updates on the war in Iran today:
Shelly Kittleson freed | Kharg Island | Iran's president willing to die | Pakistan seeks deadline extension | Strikes in the region | Hormuz U.N. resolution vetoed
American journalist Kittleson is freed
An Iran-backed militia in Iraq says it is releasing American journalist Shelly Kittleson one week after kidnapping her in Baghdad.
Kataib Hezbollah, one of Iraq's most powerful Iran-backed paramilitaries, announced it was releasing Kittleson in appreciation of "the patriotic positions" of Iraq's prime minister, who was helping negotiate her release. It said she had to leave the country immediately.
The Iraqi and U.S. governments did not immediately comment.
When Kittleson was kidnapped last week, the U.S. State Department said it had warned her of threats against her beforehand, and that it was working with the FBI to secure her release. The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has said all American citizens should leave Iraq because of attacks.
Kataib Hezbollah is not related to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. It is part of a coalition of Iran-backed militias that have been attacking U.S. military and government targets in Iraq. The U.S. and Israel have launched airstrikes in response.
The U.S. attacks Kharg Island again
The U.S. struck Iran's Kharg Island early Tuesday, a U.S. official confirmed to NPR.
The island is Iran's oil export hub on the Persian Gulf, but the official said the targets were not oil infrastructure — they were "restrikes" on sites the U.S. hit previously. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak about it publicly.
It is unclear what the purpose of the strikes was. President Trump previously threatened to seize control of the island and oil facilities.
Iran's president says he and 14 million are willing to die
Iranian officials reacted defiantly hours before President Trump's ultimatum was due, with Iran's president saying he is willing to die along with millions of Iranians to defend his country.
"More than 14 million proud Iranians have so far registered to sacrifice their lives to defend Iran. I too have been, am, and will remain devoted to giving my life for Iran," Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on social media.
That followed a call late Monday by Iran's deputy minister of sports and youth, Alireza Rahimi, for "young people, cultural and artistic figures, athletes" to form human chains next to the power plants across Iran. "Attacking public infrastructure is a war crime," Rahimi wrote.
Images from Iran have showed Iranians showing up and waving the national flag around power facilities and public squares in different parts of the country.
Pakistan seeks deadline extension, says efforts to end the war are progressing
On Tuesday afternoon, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, acting as an intermediary between the warring nations, called on President Trump to extend the deadline by two weeks to allow diplomacy "to run its course."
In a post on X, Sharif requested that Iran, in return, reopen the Strait of Hormuz "for a corresponding period of two weeks as a goodwill gesture."
He said diplomatic efforts for reaching a peaceful end to the war "are progressing steadily, strongly and powerfully."
Without mentioning Israel by name, Sharif also urged "all warring parties to observe a ceasefire everywhere for two weeks" to allow for continued negotiations.
Iran's ambassador in Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam, said on Tuesday that Pakistan's efforts to stop the war are "approaching a critical, sensitive" period.
But Moghadam sounded less enthusiastic in an interview with state-run media, where he set out the country's position: "A complete cessation of the war is Tehran's maximum demand in the process of peace diplomacy," adding, "with a guarantee of nonrepetition of aggression."
Moghadam also warned Gulf countries, which he did not name, to "pay attention to their conditions and relations with Iran." He warned: "Know that sooner or later America will leave this region by accepting defeat and you will stay."
Earlier, Iranian state media said the government rejected U.S. demands, transferred by intermediaries, and presented a plan of its own.
Iran's 10-point proposal included a guarantee that Iran would not be attacked again, an end to Israeli strikes against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and removal of sanctions in exchange for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, with Iran imposing a $2 million fee for every ship moving through the key waterway, according to The New York Times.
Israel attacks Iran's railways and bridges; Iran strikes targets in the Gulf
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel is stepping up its attacks against Iran, hitting railways and bridges he says are used to transport weapons, military equipment and regime operatives.
He says the strikes aren't aimed against civilians but are to crush the regime.
Israel had issued a warning to Iranians to avoid travel by train and to stay away from railway tracks. The warning was posted on social media, but the internet has been largely shut down across Iran.
Earlier, Israel's military said it attacked one of the "few remaining" petrochemical facilities producing ballistic missile and explosive material, in Shiraz, in southern Iran. It also said it struck a ballistic missile site in northwestern Iran and infrastructure across the country.
Iran retaliated by firing missiles into central Israel, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, forcing the closure of the key King Fahd Causeway between the two Gulf countries.
Saudi Arabia's Defense Ministry said it was assessing damage to its energy facilities caused by falling debris from dozens of ballistic missiles and drones intercepted by its air defense systems on Tuesday.
The United Arab Emirates said its air defense systems engaged with incoming missiles and drones on Tuesday, while Kuwait's army said it had shot down 17 "hostile drones" in the past 24 hours.
Russia and China veto a U.N. resolution to protect ships in the Strait of Hormuz
Russia and China vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution put forth by Bahrain that would have demanded that Iran stop all attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
Bahrain's foreign minister says Iran has no right to close the Strait of Hormuz, which has impacts on food and energy security around the globe. He criticized the council for failing to back his resolution.
The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Mike Waltz, echoed that, saying: "No one should tolerate that they are holding the global economy at gunpoint, but today, Russia and China did tolerate it."
The resolution would have called on Iran to stop all attacks on civilian infrastructure. The draft did not mention U.S. and Israeli attacks or threats to strike Iranian bridges, power plants and other civilian infrastructure.
Representatives from Russia and China said the resolution was "unbalanced" against Iran.
"It doesn't even touch upon the root cause of the situation ... in a very unbalanced manner, only accuse Iran," Chinese Ambassador to the U.N. Fu Cong said in a video interview he shared on social media. "The timing is very bad — we all heard what the U.S. president has said. And against this background we think it is extremely dangerous for the Security Council to adopt a resolution like this."
Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya, said Russia and China were proposing an alternative resolution that would include maritime security.
Iranian Ambassador to the U.N. Amir-Saeid Iravani hailed the veto. "Russia and China ensured the Security Council would not be instrumentalized to legitimize aggression," he said.
Daniel Estrin and Carrie Kahn in Tel Aviv, Israel; Jane Arraf in Amman, Jordan; Diaa Hadid in Mumbai, India; Michele Kelemen, Tina Kraja and Alex Leff in Washington, D.C.; and Vanessa Romo in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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