OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
9:56 AM – Wednesday, April 8, 2026
Upon announcing that he reached a tentative ceasefire with Iran, President Donald Trump shared Tehran’s official statement promising to halt military operations and allow passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
The statement on Tuesday evening, shortly after Trump’s 8:00 p.m. ET deadline, came from Iran’s Minister of Public Affairs Seyed Abbas Araghchi on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“I express gratitude and appreciation for my dear brothers HE (His Excellency) Prime Minister of Pakistan (Shehbaz) Sharif and HE Field Marshal (Asim) Munir for their tireless efforts to end the war in the region,” he stated.
The two countries entered a two-week period on Tuesday in which they will negotiate the terms of a peace plan. The U.S. requested to negotiate a 15-point proposal; meanwhile, Iran requested a 10-point proposal, which President Trump accepted as a general framework.
“If attacks against Iran are halted, our Powerful Armed Forces will cease their defensive operations,” Araghchi wrote on behalf of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.
“For a period of two weeks, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via coordination with Iran’s Armed Forces,” he continued.
The Iranian representative also credited “brotherly” messaging from Sharif for the regime’s agreement to a ceasefire.
“With the greatest humility, I am pleased to announce that the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, along with their allies, have agreed to an immediate ceasefire everywhere including Lebanon and elsewhere, EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY,” Sharif posted to X on Tuesday evening.
“Both parties have displayed remarkable wisdom and understanding and have remained constructively engaged in furthering the cause of peace and stability,” he said.
The ceasefire agreement followed Trump’s Easter Sunday demand that the regime “open the f***in’ Strait” or face “Hell.” The 48-hour Easter Monday deadline was extended to Tuesday for Americans to observe the holiday.
The Strait of Hormuz is Iran’s chokepoint through which about a fifth of the world’s oil supply is exported from the Gulf area.
Remaining leaders of the Iranian regime briefly allowed ships to pass through the waterway weeks ago to send 10 oil tankers to the U.S. as proof for the president that he was “dealing with the right people.”
The Strait of Hormuz allowed the first ships to pass since the ceasefire announcement. However, oil tanker traffic was since halted due to confusion over an Israeli attack on Lebanon on Wednesday morning.
Though Sharif said that Lebanon was included in the agreement, Israel continued to carry out strikes on Hezbollah hotbeds in Lebanon to eliminate threats posed by the Iran-backed militant group. The country’s health ministry reported that more than 1,500 people have been killed since Israel launched its first strikes in early March.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a Statement overnight that the two-week ceasefire “does not include Lebanon.”
In light of the continued strikes, Sharif issued a statement urging all parties involved in the Middle Eastern conflict to respect the two-week time frame and “exercise restraint.”
Trump maintained confidence in the temporary ceasefire, however.
“A big day for World Peace! Iran wants it to happen, they’ve had enough! Likewise, so has everyone else!” he posted to Truth Social overnight. “The United States of America will be helping with the traffic buildup in the Strait of Hormuz. There will be lots of positive action! Big money will be made. Iran can start the reconstruction process. We’ll be loading up with supplies of all kinds, and just ‘hangin’ around’ in order to make sure that everything goes well. I feel confident that it will.”
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