President Donald Trump said he was in “heated negotiations” to extend his self-imposed 8 p.m. Tuesday deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz after Pakistan’s prime minister made a plea in an 11th-hour attempt to stop the U.S. bombing of Iranian infrastructure.
Asked if he would grant the extension request of two weeks, Trump told Fox News in a phone interview: “I can’t tell you, because right now we’re in heated negotiations.”
He did add that he and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who is mediating between the U.S. and Iran, are in talks: “I can say this—that I know him very well. He’s a highly respected man, all over.”
Just an hour earlier, Sharif made a last-minute call to Trump, requesting the U.S. reconsider targeting Iranian power plants and bridges, the latest of Trump’s threats to Iran as the war enters its sixth week.
“Diplomatic efforts for peaceful settlement of the ongoing war in the Middle East are progressing steadily, strongly, and powerfully with the potential to lead to substantive results in near future,” the prime minister said in a post on X. “To allow diplomacy to run its course, I earnestly request President Trump to extend the deadline for two weeks.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that Trump “has been made aware of the proposal, and a response will come,” according to Fox News.
This back and forth call for negotiations has caused the markets to rally late Tuesday afternoon. The diplomacy came after Trump threatened on social media to wipe out Iran’s “whole civilization,” a post that prompted Iranian mediators to briefly halt participation in talks, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. A senior White House official downplayed the move and said legitimate negotiations were continuing.
Markets cheered on the headlines. The S&P 500 erased a 1.2% intraday decline to close up, while Brent crude slid to as low as $104.50 after settling near $109. West Texas Intermediate barely fell, however, only 0.4% to $111.93 a barrel.
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Eva Roytburg