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(Bloomberg) — US President Donald Trump indefinitely extended a ceasefire with Iran just before its expiration, while maintaining a naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz after planned peace talks between the two sides fell apart.
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Trump said in a Truth Social post that Pakistan, which is mediating, asked the US to hold off on fresh strikes. The US is extending the ceasefire until Iran submits a new proposal “and discussions are concluded, one way or the other.” In another post, the president said that without the blockade, “there can never be a Deal with Iran, unless we blow up the rest of their Country, their leaders included!”
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Vice President JD Vance had been set to travel to Pakistan to resume talks with Iran, but representatives from Tehran refused to attend, citing what they said were unreasonable American demands. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said there is currently no prospect of Iran participating in negotiations.
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A White House official confirmed in a statement that the vice president’s trip would not take place on Tuesday.
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Trump’s announcement struck a markedly different tone from earlier in the day when he told CNBC that “I expect to be bombing” if Iran didn’t meet his conditions, adding the military was “raring to go.” In a telephone interview on Monday, Trump said it was “highly unlikely that I’d extend” the cessation of hostilities if no deal is reached.
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Oil held a two-day gain after the ceasefire was extended, with Brent trading at about $98 a barrel after adding almost 9% in the previous two sessions. Crude traded below $60 in January, before reaching as high as $119.50 in March. US gasoline pump prices are at about $4 a gallon on average, compared with about $3 before the war began on Feb. 28.
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Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in a statement thanked Trump for extending the ceasefire “to allow ongoing diplomatic efforts to take their course.”
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“I sincerely hope that both sides will continue to observe the ceasefire and be able to conclude a comprehensive ‘Peace Deal’ during the second round of talks scheduled at Islamabad for a permanent end to the conflict,” he said in a post on X.
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Top Iranian officials didn’t immediately comment on Trump’s pronouncement in overnight hours, Tehran time. Iran didn’t request an extension of the ceasefire, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, citing unidentified sources. It also said the country won’t reopen the strait as long as the US naval blockade continues. Iranian forces are “at full readiness, with their fingers on the trigger,” the semi-official Fars News Agency reported, citing a statement by the country’s armed forces.
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The developments marked the latest turn in the back and forth between Washington and Tehran since the two sides announced a two-week truce on April 7. Since then, they have publicly bickered over the terms of an agreement and alternatively opened and closed Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas exports flowed before the war.
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