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United States President Donald Trump announced on April 21 that he is extending the ceasefire with Iran for the time being and that the US will hold off on attacking the Islamic Republic. The announcement came hours before the end of the two-week ceasefire.
In a post to Truth Social, Trump said that his decision was made at the request of Pakistani mediators who said more time was needed for a fractured Iranian leadership to submit a proposal on a deal to permanently end the war.
“Based on the fact that the government of Iran is seriously fractured — not unexpectedly so — and upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our attack on the country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump said.
“I have therefore directed our military to continue the blockade and in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted and discussions are concluded, one way or the other,” he added.
Pakistan was planning to hold a second round of talks between the U.S. and Iran, and while Washington expressed interest in participating, Tehran held off on following suit, taking issue with a continued U.S. blockade of the Islamic Republic’s ports.
Ahead of Trump’s surprise announcement, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that Tehran had officially informed Washington that it will not attend talks in Pakistan, believing they would be “a waste of time.”
“The Iranian negotiating team has informed the American side — through the Pakistani intermediary — that it will not be present in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Wednesday, and that there is currently no prospect of participating in negotiations either,” the report reads.
Iranian sources who spoke to Tasnim cited Washington’s “failure” to extend the two-week ceasefire to include Israeli fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon, “excessive” American demands in the talks, and imposition of a naval blockade on Iranian ports as reasons for the decision.
“In messages exchanged over the past several days, the Americans did not back down from their excessive demands… and no meaningful progress was made in the exchanged messages. For this reason, Iran has ultimately announced today that, under these circumstances, attending the negotiations would be a waste of time,” the report reads.
Trump’s decision is highly suspicious, and may be even just an attempt to deceive Iran. First, the decision was taken unilaterally, and second, Trump didn’t even set a clear time limit for the extension, leaving the door open for the U.S. to resume military operations against Iran at any given moment.
Iran, however, seems well aware of that. In an attempt to deter any surprise attack, Revolutionary Guards threatened to end oil production in the Middle East if the Islamic Republic faces attacks launched from its Gulf neighbors’ territory.
“The southern neighbors should know that if their geography and facilities are used in the service of the enemies to attack the Iranian nation, they should bid farewell to oil production in the Middle East,” the commander of Guards’ aerospace force, Majid Mousavi, was quoted by Fars news agency as saying.
The latest developments clearly show that there is still no trust between the U.S. and Iran, and while the efforts of Pakistan could eventually produce a second round of talks, an agreement remains highly unlikely.
The U.S., which continues to amass forces in the Middle East, is certainly keeping military options on the table, and ground operations inside Iran may be among them.
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another taco tuesday by unhinged war criminal in chief drumpf.
iran is right to not trust the trump regime.
it’s all just a ruse to 1) rig the markets, and 2) delay until more equipment is in place to attack iran again. trump’s erratic behavoiur is no accident: to rig the markets so blatantly (i find it impossible that gold and oil are so low now) they need to find an excuse for their manipulation, the best they could find is that the market “reacts” to trumps words, but the rigging is so “in your face” it ain’t funny. get ready for a huuuuge war soon…
waiting for next bank holiday weekends full moon high tides baby trump losing his little toys
…on the table… – this table is overladen with bullshit trump is expressing as soon as he opens his sucker mouth.
the retaliation is prepared, let trump fall in the trap his attack phantasies takes him to.
let them fill the area dense, to have better target practicing for irans missiles. yust more dead yankees for israels baal cult.
wake up usa you serve hitler 2.0!
zionists = nazi + talmudists!
his job is to bullshit. that is his job description
so what ? trumps directors are attempting floating stock markets to hold off revolt. for now. propaganda is always rhetorical lies. failure of lies is always certain . truth social is a fine example of public confidence loss
it is just a delaying action as the u.s. is currently moving huge resources into the area at the moment. iran’s going bye-bye, only question is what will russia/china do. my guess is ww3, so there ya go!
this only ends with iran occupied by american & israeli troops!