President Donald Trump pulled back from histhreats to destroy the Iranian civilization, Tehran celebrated what it framed as a victory andmarkets soared on news that the Strait of Hormuz could reopen.
But the exact terms of theIran war ceasefiredeal remained unclear even as it took effect Wednesday, with a growing list of questions hanging over the next two weeks and the road ahead.
New attacks were reported in Iran and across the Gulf on Wednesday, and Israel said it would keep striking Lebanon and continued to carry out heavy bombardment there.
Here's what we know — and what we don't — about the ceasefire between Iran, the United States and Israel.
What's been agreed to?
No official ceasefire agreement has been released, but Trump announced an eleventh-hour deal in a Truth Social post ahead of the Tuesday night deadline he had imposed on Iran.
"I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks. This will be a double sided CEASEFIRE!" he said.
Iran's 10-point proposal for a fuller peace deal would be a "workable basis on which to negotiate," Trump said.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council announced the country had agreed to the ceasefire and would allocate two weeks to finalize a peace deal. Iran said it would cease its “defensive operations” so long as U.S. and Israeli strikes were halted.
The 10-point plan outlined by Iranian state media includes a number of demands that appear to conflict with America’s own 15-point proposal, with Iran seeking continued control over transit through the Strait of Hormuz and the complete withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from its bases across the region.
Multiple Iranian media outlets also reported that the 10 points include “acceptance of enrichment" for Tehran’s nuclear program, which conflicts with the Trump administration's stance.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously said the 15-point U.S. plan makes clear Iran "can never have nuclear weapons," and Trump reiterated "there will be no enrichment of Uranium" in a Truth Social post Wednesday.
Trump added that "many of the 15 points" have already been agreed to, without detailing what they were.
He later appeared to distance himself from reports about both plans, writing on Truth Social: "There is only one group of meaningful “POINTS” that are acceptable to the United States, and we will be discussing them behind closed doors during these Negotiations. These are the POINTS that are the basis on which we agreed to a CEASEFIRE."
The absence of a definitive text and competing public statements leaves “a very ambiguous ceasefire agreement that is extremely shaky and brittle,” said Andreas Krieg, a senior lecturer at King’s College London’s School of Security Studies.
"The Iranians have put forward a fairly maximalist position," he said, noting their demands are unlikely to be "easily implementable."
Vice President JD Vance described it as a "fragile truce" Wednesday, pointing to divisions within the Iranian regime as complicating negotiations.
Is Hormuz open?
Trump's ultimatum centered on the strait, a key trade route through which 20% of the world’s oil passes. The waterway's effective closure sent global energy prices surging.
Trump said the ceasefire was "subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz."
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said safe passage would be allowed through the strait for the duration of the two-week ceasefire “via coordination with Iran’s Armed Forces and with due consideration of technical limitations.” He did not expand on which technical limitations he was referring to in his post on X.
The Fars news agency reported that two oil tankers were allowed to pass through the strait on Wednesday “after obtaining permission from Iran,” but the passage of further tankers “was halted” because of Israel’s fresh strikes on Lebanon.
It was also not clear whether Iran will seek to charge fees or limit traffic moving through the strait during the ceasefire, or impose limits on which ships can transit. It has been charging fees during the war to allow a small number of ships to pass through the critical oil chokepoint.
Trump said the U.S. would be "helping with the traffic buildup" in the waterway, while French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that more than 15 nations from Europe, Asia and the Middle East were also working with Iran to help reopen the strait.
Has Israel agreed to the truce?
The Israeli military, which launched the war against Iran alongside U.S. forces Feb. 28, announced Wednesday that it had “ceased” fire on Iran in accordance with the truce, but remained on “high defensive alert” and “ready to respond to any violation.”
It said the ceasefire would not include Lebanon, however, directly contradicting Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the ceasefire plan outlined by Iranian state media.
Advertisement
Hours later, the Israeli military said it had undertaken the largest wave of strikes across Lebanon since the start of its invasion, with heavy bombardment reported in the capital, Beirut.
“We will continue striking the Hezbollah terror organization and will utilize every operational opportunity,” the IDF said in posts on X, saying its strikes targeted "Hezbollah headquarters, military arrays, & command-and-control centers" across Beirut and southern Lebanon.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Israel was disregarding "all regional and international efforts to end the war," including by targeting "densely populated residential areas."
Israel had "violated the principles of international law and international humanitarian law" with its onslaught, he said.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards threatened a "regret-inducing response" if Israeli strikes on Lebanon do not immediately end. Trump backed up Israel, however,
Israel invaded Lebanon after the Iran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets at northern Israel in retaliation for the Iran war. Israeli forces have vowed to establish a “security zone” across southern Lebanon, destroying homes throughout the area, as well as bridges across the Litani River, which link the south to the rest of Lebanon.
More than 1,500 people have been killed in the Israeli assault, according to Lebanese government figures, while more than a million people have been displaced from their homes by bombardment and Israeli military evacuation orders. Israel has warned that those displaced from the south will not be able to return until the safety of Israelis in northern Israel can be guaranteed.
Iranian officials have not released a recent death toll, but the U.S.-based rights group HRANA put the total killed at almost 3,400, including more than 1,600 civilians. More than 1,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, and 23 have died in Israel. Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed, and two more died of noncombat causes.
Who negotiated the deal?
Pakistan and Egypt played key roles in facilitating the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran, with Araghchi expressing "gratitude and appreciation" for Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, the army chief of Pakistan, "for their tireless efforts to end the war in the region."
Trump told theAgence France-Pressenews agency that he believed China also played a pivotal part in persuading Iran to negotiate.
“I hear yes,” Trump said after being asked if Beijing was involved in getting its ally Tehran to the negotiating table. Trump is expected to travel to China in mid-May to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, after postponing the trip because of the Iran war.
Sharif also credited China, as well as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and Qatar, with extending “invaluable” support in the effort to achieve a temporary ceasefire, in a post on X on Wednesday.
Beijing is a close ally of Tehran, as well as the primary buyer of Iranian oil, but it has condemned Iran's attacks against Gulf countries, with which it also has important economic ties.
What’s next?
The days ahead will be crucial in determining whether the ceasefire holds and whether a more lasting agreement can be negotiated to end the war that has consumed the region and threatened global economic pain.
Pakistan and Iran have both said talks toward a lasting peace deal would begin Friday in Islamabad. The U.S. has yet to confirm this.
In the meantime, both the U.S. and Iran have claimed victory.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was asked at a press conference Wednesday if a future U.S. deal with Iran would involve its government handing over all of its enriched uranium.
He said that the material is currently “buried” and that the U.S. is “watching it.”
“We know exactly what they have, and they know that, and they will either give it to us, which the president has laid out — they’ll give it to us voluntarily, we’ll get it, we’ll take it, we’ll take it out — or if we have to do something else ourselves, like we did Midnight Hammer or something like that, we reserve that opportunity,” Hegseth said, referring to the U.S. targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities last June.
One of Iran’s demands in order to end the war is the removal of all U.S. military forces from “all bases and positions in the region.” That demand would almost certainly be a nonstarter for the U.S.
Hegseth said Wednesday that U.S. forces would be “hanging around” in the region in the midst of the ceasefire to ensure compliance.
“We’re not going anywhere,” he said.
Trump celebrated the deal in a post on Truth Social as a “big day for World Peace,” just hours after threatening to wipe out the population of Iran.
“This could be the Golden Age of the Middle East,” he said.
