Donald Trump is considering a two-week ceasefire as the deadline he has given Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz rapidly approaches.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, told Axios that the US president had been made aware of an 11th hour Pakistani proposal for a two-week pause to the fighting, saying “a response will come”. Tehran is “positively reviewing” the proposal, an Iranian official told Reuters.
Mr Trump had vowed on Saturday to bomb the country’s power plants and bridges unless Iranian leaders agreed to end the conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz by 8pm EST (1am BST) on Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning, he wrote on Truth Social that “a whole civilisation will be destroyed” unless the deadline was adhered to. In response, Iranians formed human chains around power plants and bridges. It is unclear if the regime organised the demonstrations.
Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan, urged Mr Trump to extend his deadline by two weeks on Tuesday evening, just hours before the approaching deadline.
“To allow diplomacy to run its course, I earnestly request President Trump to extend the deadline for two weeks. Pakistan, in all sincerity, requests the Iranian brothers to open Strait of Hormuz for a corresponding period of two weeks as a goodwill gesture,” Mr Sharif wrote on X.
The Iranian ambassador to Pakistan said there had been a “step forward” from a “critical situation” regarding the talks.
Iran has rejected previous calls for temporary ceasefires and pushed for hard guarantees that fighting will not resume if it reopens the Strait of Hormuz and stops firing missiles at Israel and Gulf states.