Pakistan's Last-Minute Diplomacy Averts Escalation as Trump Agrees to Two-Week Ceasefire with Iran
In a dramatic 11th-hour intervention, Pakistan brokered a temporary de-escalation in the ongoing US-Israel conflict with Iran, helping avert what President Donald Trump had warned could be the destruction of an entire civilization. On Tuesday, as Trump's self-imposed 8 p.m. ET deadline loomed—accompanied by his stark warning that "a whole civilization will die tonight" if Iran did not comply—Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appealed publicly for a two-week extension to allow diplomacy to advance. Sharif also urged Iran to reopen the vital Strait of Hormuz as a goodwill gesture during that period.48b500 Hours later, Trump announced on Truth Social that he had agreed to suspend US (and Israeli) bombing and attacks on Iran for two weeks, conditional on Iran providing "COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING" of the Strait of Hormuz. The White House confirmed it was aware of Pakistan's proposal, and reports indicate Iran accepted the truce terms, framing i...