United States President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday, 7 April 2026, that he had agreed to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks, subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the complete, immediate, and safe reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The announcement, made hours before Trump’s self-imposed military deadline, was described by the president as a mutual arrangement and followed intensive mediation by Pakistan.
Trump made the announcement through a post on his Truth Social platform. He described the arrangement as a double-sided ceasefire and stated that the United States had already met and exceeded all military objectives and was very far along with a definitive agreement on long-term peace with Iran and peace in the Middle East. Trump said the United States had received a 10-point proposal from Iran and considered it a workable basis on which to negotiate, adding that almost all points of past contention had been agreed upon between the two sides.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi confirmed Tehran’s acceptance of the ceasefire in a statement issued on behalf of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. Araghchi stated that if attacks against Iran were halted, Iran’s armed forces would cease their defensive operations and that safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz would be possible for a period of two weeks via coordination with Iran’s armed forces, with due consideration of technical limitations.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council issued a separate statement confirming the acceptance and announcing that negotiations with the United States would begin in Islamabad on Friday, 10 April 2026. The Council stated explicitly that the ceasefire did not signify the termination of the war, warning that Iran’s forces remained on alert and that any provocation by the enemy would be met with full force.
How Pakistan brokered the two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran in April 2026
Trump credited Pakistan as the primary mediator, citing conversations with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistani Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, who had requested that the president hold off the military force being directed toward Iran. Sharif had earlier proposed the two-week ceasefire framework in a post on X, saying that diplomatic efforts were progressing steadily and powerfully with the potential to lead to substantive results in the near future. Sharif also called on Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz as a goodwill gesture and urged all warring parties to observe a ceasefire everywhere.
Field Marshal Asim Munir had been in contact throughout the preceding period with United States Vice President JD Vance, United States Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi. The proposed framework, tentatively referred to as the Islamabad Accord, was structured to provide a temporary end to the fighting and arrangements for final status talks between the United States and Iran to be held in the Pakistani capital. The final agreement was expected to include Iranian commitments not to pursue nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief and the release of frozen assets.
Pakistan’s role as the sole communication channel between Washington and Tehran represents a significant diplomatic development for Islamabad. Pakistan holds no formal alliance with either the United States or Iran but maintains functional relations with both, and its military leadership had been engaged in active back-channel contact with Iranian officials throughout the weeks of conflict. The appointment of Field Marshal Asim Munir as the central interlocutor underscores the extent to which military-to-military diplomacy drove the final hours of the negotiation ahead of Trump’s 8pm Eastern Time deadline.
Sharif welcomed the ceasefire announcement following its confirmation, saying that both parties had displayed remarkable wisdom. He invited delegations from both countries to Islamabad on Friday, 10 April 2026, to further negotiate toward a conclusive agreement on all disputes and expressed hope that the Islamabad Talks would succeed in achieving sustainable peace.
What Iran’s 10-point ceasefire proposal includes and what Tehran agreed to in the Hormuz deal
Iran’s 10-point proposal, acknowledged by Trump as the basis for negotiation, included a guarantee that Iran would not be attacked again and an end to Israeli strikes against Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. It also included the removal of international sanctions in exchange for the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran additionally sought to impose a fee of two million United States dollars per vessel passing through the waterway, according to reporting from The New York Times.
The terms Araghchi outlined on behalf of the Supreme National Security Council were conditional on the cessation of attacks against Iran. Tehran’s acceptance statement specified that safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz during the two-week ceasefire period would require coordination with Iran’s armed forces. The qualification echoed a broader Iranian position that the strait’s reopening would be managed rather than unconditional, reflecting Tehran’s stated intent to retain operational control over the waterway even during the pause in hostilities.
Israel agreed to the temporary ceasefire, with the arrangement noted by a White House official to be subject to Iran following through on the Hormuz reopening. United States Vice President JD Vance is expected to lead the United States delegation at the Islamabad talks beginning on Friday, 10 April 2026. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that discussions about in-person talks were advancing, though nothing was considered final until announced by the president or the White House.
The global energy market disruption caused by Iran’s Strait of Hormuz closure since February 2026
The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most strategically critical maritime chokepoints, connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and international shipping lanes. Approximately one-fifth of the world’s oil supply and a substantial share of global liquefied natural gas exports move through the strait, which passes through waters shared by Iran and Oman. Iran’s closure of the strait following the outbreak of hostilities at the end of February 2026 triggered one of the largest acute energy supply disruptions in modern history.
The war caused Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain to collectively shut in an estimated 7.5 million barrels per day of crude oil production in March 2026, according to the United States Energy Information Administration. The agency projected that the disruption would worsen before improving, rising to 9.1 million barrels per day in April. United States petrol prices had risen to a national average of 4.14 dollars per gallon, an increase of nearly 39 percent since the war began, from 2.98 dollars per gallon on 26 February 2026.
The United States Energy Information Administration sharply raised its oil, gasoline, and diesel price forecasts for 2026 and 2027, projecting that prices would continue to rise until the strait reopened and production recovered. The agency’s administrator, Tristan Abbey, stated that full restoration of shipping flows through the Strait of Hormuz would take months and warned that Middle East oil production shut-ins would not return close to pre-conflict levels until late 2026.
How global financial markets responded to the United States-Iran two-week ceasefire announcement
United States crude oil prices fell sharply following Trump’s announcement, declining approximately 8 percent to around 103 dollars per barrel after having traded as high as 117 dollars earlier in the day. United States stock index futures moved significantly higher, with S&P 500 futures rising more than 1.6 percent, Nasdaq 100 futures gaining 1.8 percent, and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures advancing 725 points. The market moves reflected the scale of the risk premium that energy markets and equity investors had attached to the possibility of continued and escalating military strikes against Iranian energy and civilian infrastructure.
What military strikes preceded the Iran ceasefire announcement on 7 April 2026
In the hours before the ceasefire came into effect, the United States military conducted an intense wave of strikes on Kharg Island, Iran’s primary oil export hub, targeting dozens of military sites on the island. United States officials had described Kharg Island as the nexus of Iranian oil supply. Strikes were also reported on Iran’s two main petrochemical hubs at Mahshahr and Assaluyeh. Israel acknowledged separate strikes on Iranian railways and bridges, which Israel said were used to transport weapons, military equipment, and regime operatives. Israel’s military also struck one of the remaining petrochemical facilities involved in ballistic missile and explosive material production.
Earlier in the conflict, a joint United States-Israeli strike had killed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Chief Majid Khademi, according to reporting from Fox News. The conflict, which began on 28 February 2026, had also seen strikes on the campus of Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, a site Iran described as among the country’s most prominent engineering institutions.
China and Russia had vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution aimed at reopening the Strait of Hormuz in the days before the ceasefire announcement. Eleven countries voted in favour of the resolution, two abstained, and two opposed it. United States Ambassador Michael Waltz condemned China and Russia at the Security Council for opposing the resolution.
What the Islamabad ceasefire framework means for the broader United States-Iran-Israel conflict
The ceasefire framework leaves several core issues of the conflict unresolved. Iran’s Supreme National Security Council warned in its acceptance statement that the arrangement did not signify the termination of the war and that Iran’s forces remained at the ready. In the immediate hours after the ceasefire came into force at 8pm Eastern Time on 7 April 2026, missile alerts sounded in the United Arab Emirates and Israel reported detecting incoming Iranian missiles, highlighting the difficulty of enforcing a simultaneous cessation of hostilities across multiple armed actors operating under Iranian strategic alignment but not all within Tehran’s direct day-to-day command.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council hinted that the ceasefire could be extended beyond its initial two weeks if negotiations proceeded favourably. The two-week window is framed by both governments as a period for finalising a broader agreement rather than as an end to the conflict. The Islamabad Talks beginning on 10 April 2026 will determine whether the pause translates into a durable arrangement or becomes another stage in a conflict that has already disrupted global energy flows, triggered one of the largest supply disruptions in Persian Gulf history, and drawn in multilateral institutions, regional powers, and international mediators on multiple tracks simultaneously.
The United Nations, which had called for restraint throughout the conflict and warned of potential war crimes in connection with threatened strikes on civilian infrastructure including power plants and water treatment facilities, expressed concern about the situation at the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which had reportedly sustained nearby damage during the conflict. International Atomic Energy Agency officials called for restraint and warned of the risk of a nuclear accident.
Key takeaways on what the United States-Iran two-week ceasefire and Strait of Hormuz deal means for global energy markets, regional security, and the Islamabad peace process
- United States President Donald Trump suspended United States military strikes against Iran for two weeks on 7 April 2026, conditioned on the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the complete and immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council formally accepting the ceasefire and committing to allow coordinated maritime passage through the strait during the pause.
- Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi confirmed Tehran’s acceptance on behalf of the Supreme National Security Council, describing the arrangement as conditional on the cessation of attacks against Iran and qualifying that reopening of the Strait of Hormuz would require vessel coordination with Iran’s armed forces.
- Pakistan served as the sole communication channel between Washington and Tehran in the final negotiation, with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistani Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir credited by Trump as the architects of the two-week framework; peace talks are scheduled to begin in Islamabad on Friday, 10 April 2026.
- United States crude oil prices fell approximately 8 percent following the announcement, from a daily high of 117 dollars per barrel to around 103 dollars per barrel, while United States stock index futures rallied sharply, reflecting the severity of the energy market dislocation caused by the five-week closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
- Iran’s Supreme National Security Council stated that the ceasefire does not signify the termination of the war and that its forces remain on alert, and post-ceasefire missile alerts in the United Arab Emirates and incoming Iranian missile detections reported by Israel indicate that the transition to a stable cessation of hostilities remains contested across multiple armed actors in the region.
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