Trump says he will extend US ceasefire with Iran to allow leadership to submit 'unified proposal'

21 Apr 2026, 20:30 by Jane Moore, https://www.thejournal.ie/author/jane-moore/ · TheJournal.ie

LAST UPDATE | 20 hrs ago

DONALD TRUMP HAS said the US will extending the two-week ceasefire with Iran at the request of Pakistan until “discussions are concluded one way or the other”.

It comes just hours before the truce was due to expire and follows uncertainty over whether a second round of talks between Washington and Tehran would take place in Islamabad.

In a post of Truth Social, the US president wrote: “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.

“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.”

Vice president JD Vance, who had been reportedly due to depart this morning to lead US negotiators in the talks, called off the trip this evening, according to an official.

The White House confirmed he has participating in meetings today.

Pakistan, which has been urging both sides to return to Islamabad, said it was still awaiting confirmation on whether Iran would participate.

Two regional officials said Washington and Tehran had signalled they would hold a second round of talks, with Vance leading the US team and Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf as its top negotiator.

But Pakistan’s information minister Attaullah Tarar said later on X that Iran had not formally confirmed its participation.

Meanwhile, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told Iran’s state TV there has been “no final decision” on whether to attend ceasefire talks because of “unacceptable actions from the American counterpart”.

Tehran’s government has accused the US of violating the truce through its blockade of Iranian ports and seizure of a ship.

“By imposing a blockade and violating the ceasefire, Trump wants to turn this negotiating table into a surrender table or justify renewed hostilities, as he sees fit,” Ghalibaf said on X earlier.

“We do not accept negotiations under the shadow of threats, and in the last two weeks we have been preparing to show new cards on the battlefield.”

Iranian state TV said the ceasefire with the US would expire at 3.30am on Wednesday, Tehran time (1am Irish time).

Trump says military ‘raring to go’

Earlier today, Donald Trump said he “expects to be bombing” Iran again if the country fails to reach an agreement with the US that would end the war.

Speaking during a phone-in interview with CNBC, the US president was unclear about whether he would extend the truce if there is no progress in Pakistan.

“Iran can get themselves on a very good footing if they make a deal,” Trump said.

Asked if he would carry out his previous threats to bomb Iran’s bridges and power plants – something many analysts say could constitute war crimes – Trump said “it’s not my choice but it will also hurt them.”

He said the US is in a “very, very strong negotiating position”, before insisting: “We’re going to end up with a great deal. I think they have no choice.”

Asked whether he would resume bombing Iran if the prospect of a deal was not on the table, he said: “Well I expect to be bombing cause I think that’s a better attitude to go in with.

“But we’re ready to go. I mean the military is raring to go. They are absolutely incredible.”

Strait of Hormuz

Trump also told CNBC that the US had intercepted a ship in the Strait of Hormuz carrying a “gift” to Iran from China as Tehran tries to restock its military during the ceasefire.

The ship had “a gift from China” which “wasn’t very nice,” he told CNBC. “I was a little surprised,” he added, saying he thought he had an “understanding” with China’s President Xi Jinping.

A week ago, Trump announced that Xi had assured him there would be no Chinese weapons deliveries to Iran, a close partner with Beijing for years.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned of targeting any vessel attempting to pass through the Strait of Hormuz without permission.

Trump earlier accused Iran of violating the ceasefire “numerous times” in a post on his Truth Social platform, without elaborating.

A police officer walking past billboards near the Serena Hotel ahead of the second round of negotiations between the US and Iran in Islamabad today. Alamy Stock PhotoAlamy Stock Photo

He previously said Tehran had violated the truce by harassing vessels in the key strait, the transit passage for about a fifth of the world’s oil that Iran had all but shut in retaliation for the war launched by the United States and Israel on 28 February.

The channel sees around 120 daily transits in peacetime, according to Lloyd’s List, a shipping industry intelligence site.

The site reported today that more than 20 Iranian “shadow vessels” had transited past the US blockade.

Based on its start time, the ceasefire theoretically expires overnight tonight, Tehran time, although Trump said in comments to Bloomberg the end was a day later, on Wednesday evening Washington time.

Israel-Lebanon talks

A separate ceasefire agreed between Israel and Lebanon was announced on Friday and included Hezbollah, whose rocket fire in support of Iran drew Lebanon into the war.

Israel and Lebanon, which have no diplomatic relations, will hold a second round of talks in Washington on Thursday, a State Department official told news agency AFP.

Sporadic violence continued and Israel’s military warned civilians against returning to dozens of villages in southern Lebanon, claiming Hezbollah’s activities were violating the truce.

A destroyed settlement in southern Lebanon is seen from the village of Alamsha in northern Israel, across the border fence. Alamy Stock PhotoAlamy Stock Photo

The UN Security Council condemned on Monday the killing of a French peacekeeper in Lebanon, whose death Paris blamed on Hezbollah.

The Frenchman was killed and three others wounded when their unit was ambushed on Saturday as it headed to a UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) outpost cut off from the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told AFP that his group would work to break the “Yellow Line” that Israel has established in the south, even as he said it wanted “the ceasefire to continue”.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 2,387 people since the start of the war, a Lebanese government body said in its latest toll.

Another major issue in the US-Iran negotiations has been Tehran’s stockpile of enriched uranium.

Trump, who previously said Iran had agreed to hand over the uranium, said late on Monday that doing so would be “long” and “difficult” after US strikes on Tehran’s nuclear sites last year.

“Operation Midnight Hammer was a complete and total obliteration of the Nuclear Dust sites in Iran,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Therefore, digging it out will be a long and difficult process.”

Trump uses the term “nuclear dust” to refer to Iran’s stock of enriched uranium, which the United States accuses Iran of hoarding in order to make an atomic bomb.

Iran’s foreign ministry said earlier that the stockpile was “not going to be transferred anywhere” and that the option was “never raised” in talks with US negotiators.

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