WASHINGTON/DUBAI/TEL AVIV, April 8,2026: The United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire brokered by Pakistan, potentially suspending a six-week-old war that has killed thousands, spread across the Middle East and caused unprecedented disruption to the world’s energy supplies.
Trump announced the agreement late on Tuesday, just two hours before a deadline he had set for Iran to open the blockaded Strait of Hormuz or face the destruction of its “whole civilisation”.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he had invited Iranian and U.S. delegations to meet in Islamabad on Friday. The deal is subject to Iran’s agreement to pause its blockade of oil and gas passing through the strait, Trump said.
The waterway typically handles about one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments. News of the deal, and the prospect that the worst disruption to global energy markets in history could finally come to a close, caused a sharp fall in oil prices and a surge in share markets around the world.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, said in a statement Tehran would cease counter-attacks and provide safe passage through the waterway – if attacks against it stopped.
