As U.S. President Donald Trump escalated his warnings to Iran, threatening to destroy a “whole civilization” by 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday, regional and global powers raced in eleventh-hour diplomacy to strike a deal and avert a devastating military conflagration.
At the last minute, Mr. Trump announced a deal, negotiated with Pakistan. The United States will stop its bombing if Iran agrees to offer safe passage to ships through the Strait of Hormuz for two weeks. Pakistan is expecting to hold peace talks Friday.
In recent weeks, Pakistan had emerged as a key mediator in the conflict alongside Turkey, with the support of Gulf states and China. Amid furious back-channeling Tuesday, it sought a breakthrough, amid threats and ongoing attacks from both the U.S. and the Iranian regime.
Why We Wrote This
Before the Iran war, regional powers were rushing for a diplomatic solution to rising tensions between the United States and Iran. Now, facing President Donald Trump’s threats of a civilization’s obliteration, those efforts are at a global peak.
It had first offered an initiative, supported and backed by China, calling for a 45-day ceasefire that would suspend hostilities, end attacks on critical infrastructure in Iran and Gulf states, reopen and protect shipping lanes, and called for Pakistan to host peace talks between Washington and Tehran with the end goal of a final nonaggression pact.
Iran had responded on Monday with its own counterproposal and demands, conveyed to the U.S. through Pakistan. The Iranian proposal calls for a permanent end to all hostilities, the lifting of all sanctions on Iran, the enshrinement of its right to enrich uranium, and for the U.S. to pay reparations for damages to Iranian infrastructure. It also includes demands to reroute all shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, collecting up to $2 million as a “toll” on every ship that passes the shared waterways.
President Trump dismissed that Iranian proposal as “not good enough,” insisting on the full reopening of the Strait of Hormuz for the free movement of oil and on Iranian pledges to abandon all nuclear enrichment. Gulf states rejected the Iranian proposal as a nonstarter.
Up to the deadline, Islamabad worked furiously to narrow the gap between its proposal, Iran’s counterproposal, and U.S. demands. Simultaneously, bilateral talks continued between Saudi Arabia and Iran and the United Arab Emirates and Iran to avert a wider escalation and the targeting of Gulf infrastructure and energy sources.
But attacks continued on Tuesday, with the U.S. carrying out a wave of strikes against Iranian oil and military infrastructure on Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf, Israel conducting strikes against Iran’s rail network, and Iran hitting petrochemical and energy infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the UAE with missiles and drones, and firing missile salvos at central Israel.
In a statement, the Pakistani military denounced Iran’s attacks on Saudi Arabia, heavily involved in the talks, because the strikes “undermine” a diplomatic solution to the Middle East crisis.
China has also stepped up its diplomatic role in the conflict. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning called on Tuesday for an immediate end to military operations and a “return to dialogue and negotiation” to “restore peace and stability in the Gulf,” China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
She noted the conflict was hitting the world economy and energy security, urging all parties to “demonstrate sincerity.”
“The use of force does not bring peace. Political settlement is the right way forward. The root cause of the conflict is the U.S.-Israeli launch of military attacks against Iran in violation of international law,” Xinhua quoted Ms. Mao as saying.
The U.N. Security Council failed on Tuesday to pass a resolution by Bahrain to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The measure was vetoed by Russia and China.
Crucially, a stubborn gap in trust between the U.S. and Iran remains, since the U.S. aborted negotiations with Iran and bombed the country in June 2025 and abandoned more recent nuclear talks in February before launching the current war.
Regional players will continue to seek to close that gap.
Before the two-week ceasefire was announced by Mr. Trump over social media Tuesday evening, Qatar’s deputy foreign minister and spokesman, Majed al-Ansari, warned that the window for a diplomatic solution was rapidly closing.
“We have been urging all parties to end this war before it spirals out of control,” Mr. Ansari told reporters at a news conference in Doha, which has frequently been targeted by Iranian missiles and drones.
“There are no winners in the continuation of this war. There are only losers. We are working with all our partners in the region and beyond to make sure any window of opportunity is utilized.”
Yet Iran, too, has hardened its position – threatening to unleash a devastating military response in the wider region.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters that “if the situation gets out of control, Iran’s allies will also close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait” – sealing off the Red Sea coast, the only bypass route for the Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the military backbone of the Tehran regime, warned in a statement in response to President Trump’s threats that “Self-restraint is over. Our response will now be carried out without any consideration, depriving the U.S. and its allies of oil and gas for years.”
“Our response will extend beyond the region if the U.S. military crosses our red lines,” the IRGC said in a statement published by Iranian media.