President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the United States would extend the ceasefire with Iran due to the “fractured” Iranian government.
U.S. and Iranian negotiators had not yet traveled to Islamabad, the intended location for the next round of talks, even as the ceasefire was expected to expire by Wednesday.
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“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,” Trump posted on social media.
He did not specify how long the extension would last.
Vice President JD Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and former foreign policy adviser, were expected to lead the U.S. delegation, but they remain stateside. Iranian leaders have not yet decided whether they would participate in the talks, Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Tuesday, according to the nation’s state broadcaster, IRIB.
The president initially indicated the talks would begin on Monday evening, but this waiting game between the two sides continues for now.
The president announced the two-week ceasefire on April 7, and a U.S. official told the Washington Examiner that night that U.S. forces had stopped offensive operations. The deal was set to conclude on “Wednesday evening Washington time,” Trump told Bloomberg News on Monday, although even that was unclear, with Pakistan’s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, indicating it would end at 7:50 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday.
Trump had previously indicated that he did not want to see an extension of the ceasefire and had threatened to restart military operations targeting infrastructure. Both Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and War Secretary Pete Hegseth said U.S. forces were ready to restart military operations if Trump authorized it.
Iran’s leadership void?
As Trump stated in his announcement, Iran’s leadership is fractured between those who are willing to make concessions to get a deal and those who believe they are in a position of strength and should hold out.
In Iran, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Commander Ahmad Vahidi has consolidated power and holds a more hard-line stance on the war and negotiations than Iranian Foreign Affairs Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who led Iran’s delegation in Islamabad last week. That is to say nothing for the whereabouts or well-being of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, the supreme leader who has not been seen in public since the assassination of his father and his ascension to power.
“Araghchi and Ghalibaf do not seem to be the ones who are wielding authority in Tehran, and it seems specifically that IRGC Commander Vahidi, and those close to him are the ones driving decision-making in Tehran, both in relation to what Iran is doing militarily, but also in regards to Iran’s diplomatic and negotiations efforts,” Annika Ganzeveld, an expert with the Critical Threats Project, told the Washington Examiner.
During the ceasefire, Iranian forces have been digging through the rubble at missile facilities.
They are “digging out [their] remaining launchers and missiles,” Hegseth said during a press briefing last week, saying they do not have the “the ability to replenish your remaining launchers and missiles.”
In recent days, Iran has also targeted commercial vessels transiting the waterways off its coasts.
The specific area is vital for global oil distribution, and the war has caused negative economic ripples worldwide.
The Iranians had threatened to target commercial vessels transiting the area, known at its narrowest as the Strait of Hormuz, and they pressured ships not to sail through there. Trump announced a U.S. blockade of ships going to or from Iranian ports that went into effect last week to ensure that they, too, would feel the economic burden imposed globally.
U.S. forces have forced 28 vessels to turn around and not enter the blockade, U.S. Central Command said Tuesday.
The guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance intercepted the M/V Tusk on Sunday as it sailed en route to Bandar Abbas, Iran. After failing to comply repeatedly over the course of a six-hour period, U.S. forces directed the vessel to evacuate its engine room, and the Spruance subsequently fired at the ship’s propulsion. Marines later boarded the vessel, which remains in U.S. custody.
On Tuesday, U.S. forces boarded the M/T Tifani in the Bay of Bengal, which was carrying sanctioned Iranian oil, a U.S. defense official told the Washington Examiner. The official noted there could be additional interdictions and boardings in the Pacific.
Caine previewed the interdiction last week, telling reporters that U.S. forces would be conducting “similar maritime interdiction and actions and activities” in the Pacific, like they had been near Iran.
