TEHRAN, April 8 — A ceasefire between the United States and Iran appeared to be holding Wednesday after the rivals agreed a two-week truce to the war that has killed thousands and hammered the global economy.

Both sides claimed victory as the truce was announced barely an hour before President Donald Trump’s deadline to agree a deal or face obliteration, but Tehran warned the war was not over until formal terms were negotiated.

Tehran has agreed to temporarily reopen the Strait of Hormuz, sending oil prices tumbling on Wednesday, but its demands over future control of the vital waterway, uranium enrichment and sanctions, are at deep odds with the United States.

The ceasefire was cautiously welcomed by Gulf nations, which have been pummelled by Iranian strikes for more than a month, while Pope Leo was among world leaders who urged the warring sides to broker a lasting truce.

Tehran and Washington both claimed to have won the war which began on February 28 after US-Israeli airstrikes killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and kicked off a regional war.

Trump told AFP the deal was a “total and complete victory”. Iran also hailed it as a win but warned it would enter talks with the US on Friday in Pakistan with “complete distrust”.

The ceasefire “does not mean the end of the war” and Iran would only accept a lasting truce if its terms were met, said the Iranian National Security Council in a statement carried on state media.

Underlining the precarity of the situation, there were explosions on Wednesday morning in Bahrain’s Manama, with authorities blaming “Iranian aggression”.

Lebanon strikes 

There was no let-up to fighting in Lebanon, however, where Israel renewed its strikes against Hezbollah on Wednesday despite the Iran-backed armed group not claiming any operations since 1am (Tuesday 2200 GMT).

The White House said Israel had also agreed to the ceasefire, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it does not include Lebanon, where Israel’s operation has killed more than 1,500 people, according to local authorities.

Israel had encouraged Trump to launch the war against Iran, its arch-foe, according to a report in The New York Times.

A peace agreement would leave in place the Islamic republic despite US and Israeli hopes of toppling it. The United States and Israel said that they attacked Iran to degrade its military capacity.

Trump had earlier warned a “whole civilisation will die” in Iran if the Strait of Hormuz was not opened by midnight GMT but said he had spoken to Pakistan’s leaders who requested he hold off.

He later told AFP he believed China had helped get Tehran to negotiate.

“Subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz, I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Tuesday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed safe passage for two weeks for ships through the strait, which Tehran sealed off in retaliation for the war, sending global energy prices soaring.

“If attacks against Iran are halted, our Powerful Armed Forces will cease their defensive operations,” Araghchi said.

Later on Wednesday, Trump posted on social media that the US would “be helping with the traffic buildup in the Strait of Hormuz”.

Oil prices drop 

Oil prices plunged by more than 17 per cent after the ceasefire announcement, while European natural gas dropped 20 per cent. Stock prices also soared in early trading on Wednesday in Asia.

Trump said the United States was “very far along” in negotiating a long-term agreement with Iran, which had submitted a 10-point plan that he said was “workable”.

But Iran publicly released points that took maximalist positions, including lifting long-standing US sanctions, guaranteeing Iranian “dominion” over the strait and removing US forces from the region.

Crucially, it also said its plan would require Washington to accept its uranium enrichment programme.

Trump has alleged that Iran was near to building an atomic bomb, an assertion not backed by the UN nuclear watchdog and most observers.

He insisted the nuclear material would be covered by any peace deal.

“That will be perfectly taken care of, or I wouldn’t have settled,” Trump told AFP, without giving any specifics about what would happen to the uranium.

Trump would not say whether he would go back to his original threats to lay waste to all power plants and bridges across the country of more than 90 million people if the deal fell apart.

“You’re going to have to see,” he told AFP.

First step 

Iran had retaliated during the war with weeks of drone and missile attacks on Gulf Arab states, citing their role as hubs for US troops.

The attacks have shattered the countries’ hard-fought reputation for safety and stability.

On Wednesday, the United Arab Emirates, which bore the brunt of Iran’s Gulf attacks, also claimed victory.

“The UAE emerged victorious from a war we sincerely sought to avoid,” presidential adviser Anwar Gargash said in a post on X.

Saudi Arabia called for a “sustainable” reduction in hostilities while Qatar welcomed “an initial step toward de-escalation”.

Egypt — which in recent weeks has helped shuttle messages between the US and Iran — praised efforts to “give diplomacy a chance”.

Much global reaction, however, focused on the need to turn the ceasefire into a workable peace deal.

Oman, which mediated unsuccessful talks between Washington and Tehran that were halted by the war, spoke of “the importance of intensifying efforts... to identify solutions capable of resolving the crisis at its roots”.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced an immediate visit to the Gulf and declared “we must do all we can to support and sustain this ceasefire, turn it into a lasting agreement and re-open the Strait of Hormuz”. — AFP