Iran has agreed to a two-week ceasefire with the United States, with its National Security Council saying talks with Washington will begin in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Friday, based on Tehran’s 10-point proposal.
The statement on Wednesday came after US President Donald Trump said he was holding off on a threat to end Iranian civilisation and would “suspend” attacks on the country for two weeks.
Trump said the truce was contingent on Iran agreeing to the “complete, immediate and safe opening” of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Gulf to the Arabian Sea and through which a fifth of the global oil supply passes.
Iran’s partial blockade of the strait – imposed in the aftermath of the US and Israel’s attacks on February 28 – has disrupted global trade, driving up oil prices and causing fuel shortages across the world.
Iran’s retaliatory attacks have also reverberated across the Gulf and drawn in Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis, both of which have launched attacks on Israel, significantly widening the conflict.
Trump said in his Truth Social statement that the US has already “met and exceeded” all of its military objectives and “are very far along with a definitive Agreement concerning Longterm PEACE with Iran”.
He said the US has received a 10-point proposal from Iran, “and believe it is a workable basis on which to negotiate”. The US and Iran have agreed on “almost all of the various points of contention”, he said, and that the two-week period will allow the agreement to be “finalised and consummated”.
Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi, speaking on behalf of the Iranian National Security Council, confirmed Tehran’s agreement.
“If attacks against Iran are halted, our powerful armed forces will cease their defensive operations,” he said in a post on X.
Araghchi said that safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible in coordination with Iran’s Armed Forces, and that the decision was taken in light of Trump’s acceptance “of the general framework of Iran’s 10-point proposal as a basis for negotiations”.
For his part, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the warring sides had agreed to an “immediate ceasefire everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere”.
The move is “EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY”, he wrote on X.
Sharif thanked the US and Iran and extended an invitation to “their delegations to Islamabad on Friday, 10th April 2026, to further negotiate for a conclusive agreement to settle all disputes”.
According to Iran’s National Security Council, its 10-point proposal calls for Iranian dominance and oversight of the Strait of Hormuz, which it said would grant it a “unique economic and geopolitical position”.
The proposal also calls for the withdrawal of all “US combat forces” from bases in the Middle East and a halt to military operations against allied armed groups across the region. It goes on to demand “full compensation” for war damages, as well as the lifting of all sanctions by the US, the United Nations Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The proposal also calls for the release of frozen Iranian assets abroad and the ratification of any final agreement in a binding UN Security Council resolution.
The council said that while Tehran has agreed to talks, it does so “with complete distrust of the American side”.
It said Iran will allocate two weeks for these negotiations and that the time period “can be extended by agreement of the parties”.
The council added that Iran stood ready to respond with “full force” as soon as “the slightest mistake by the enemy is made”.
Israel meanwhile said it backed Trump’s decision, but that the truce does not extend to its military operations in Lebanon.
DW Arabic 
