WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said he would suspend his threatened attack against Iran less than two hours before the deadline the president set for Tehran Tuesday, which followed weeks of deadline delays and escalating threats, including Trump's earlier post that “a whole civilization will die tonight.”
On Truth Social, Trump posted that he would withhold “the bombing and attack of Iran” for two weeks, subject to Iran reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian officials said they had accepted a two-week ceasefire and that passage through the strait would be allowed for that same period.
The temporary agreement comes after weeks of the Republican president posting a slew of heated threats, announcing deadline delays and proclamations that the negotiations were going well, sometimes in the same statement.
That was true in Trump's Truth Social post before his now-suspended Tuesday 8 p.m. ET deadline. After threatening a “whole civilization," Trump had said Iran's new leaders were more reasonable and “maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?”
Trumps posts earlier in the day had raised the ante from his threats Monday, in which he said: “They’ll have no bridges. They’ll have no power plants. They’ll have no anything.”
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres previously warned the U.S. that attacks on civilian infrastructure are banned under international law, according to his office. Trump had said he's “not at all” concerned about committing war crimes with such attacks.
So how did Trump's deadline delays and threats escalate over the weeks leading up to Tuesday night?
An ultimatum about reopening the Strait of Hormuz
On March 21, Trump posted on Truth Social that the U.S. would “hit and obliterate” Iranian power plants if it did not fully reopen the strait within 48 hours.
Iran had until the evening of March 23.
Then, 12 hours before the deadline, Trump took to Truth Social to share what seemed good news: that both countries had productive conversations toward concluding the conflict.
He wrote that he had instructed the Pentagon to postpone any strikes on Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for five days, to give more time for talks.
That pushed the deadline out to the end of that week.
A threat to target desalination plants
Before that deadline, on March 26, Trump doubled down on his threats on Truth Social: “They better get serious soon, before it is too late, because once that happens, there is NO TURNING BACK, and it won’t be pretty!”
But later that day, he extended the deadline for 10 more days, to April 6 at 8 p.m. Eastern, and said on Truth Social that negotiations were “going very well.”
On March 30, Trump put out a mixed statement: celebrating progress in the talks with Iran while also expanding his threatened bombing if a deal wasn't “shortly reached,” adding that “it probably will be."
“We will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!),” he wrote.
It's unclear how soon “shortly reached” meant for Trump, but a deal was not made as the deadline loomed.
An expletive-filled threat to attack power plants and bridges
“Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT," Trump said in a Truth Social post on Saturday, "Time is running out - 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them.” He meant rain down.
As the deadline approached, his posts had doubled down on his threats until Sunday, when Trump pushed it again in an expletive-filled post.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F——-in’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell,” Trump said on Truth Social, followed by another post that specified 8 p.m. as the deadline.
Trump then suggested on Monday that Tuesday's deadline would be final, saying he'd already given Iran enough extensions.
“The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” Trump said. “We have a plan, because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night.”
By Tuesday morning, Trump had sent his statement saying “a whole civilization will die tonight,” to which he added that “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
What's next for diplomacy with Iran?
Tuesday night, Trump said that Iran has proposed a “workable” 10-point peace plan that could help end the war the U.S. and Israel launched on Feb. 28.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said it has accepted a two-week ceasefire and that it would negotiate with the U.S. starting Friday, but added in its statement that “this does not signify the termination of the war.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said passage through the Strait of Hormuz would be allowed for the next two weeks under Iranian military management, though it wasn’t immediately clear whether that meant Iran would loosen its chokehold on the waterway.
In his post, Trump said that “Almost 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."
