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”.
