In the end, cooler heads prevailed – at least for now.
At 18:32 Washington time yesterday, President Donald Trump posted on his social media website that the US and Iran were “very far along” with a “definitive” peace agreement and that he had agreed to a two-week ceasefire to allow negotiations to proceed.
According to the BBC, it wasn’t exactly the last minute, but with Trump’s looming 20:00 EDT (00:00 GMT on Wednesday) deadline to reach a deal or the US would launch massive strikes against Iranian energy and transportation infrastructure, it came pretty close.
All of this is contingent on Iran also suspending hostilities and fully opening the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping traffic, which the regime says it will do, while insisting it still exerts “dominion” over the waterway.
The deal allowed Trump to extricate himself from what was shaping up to be a treacherous choice – either escalating with his promise that a “whole civilisation will die tonight” or backing down and undermining his credibility. The US president may have only bought himself a temporary reprieve, however.
The US and Iranians now will engage in negotiations over the next two weeks, buying some time to try to reach a permanent settlement. It is likely to be a bumpy ride, but in after-hours trading, the price of a barrel of oil dropped below the $100 mark for the first time in days and US stock futures soared. There appears to be a sense of optimism that the worst is over.
Even this kind of progress was far from certain as recently as Tuesday morning, when Trump threatened the death of Iranian civilisation, “never to be brought back again”.
Whether such a jaw-dropping threat from an American president pressured Iran to agree to the kind of ceasefire they had previously rejected is uncertain. What is clear is that Trump’s astounding, inflammatory declaration – just two days after a similar obscenity-laced Truth Social demand – is unlike anything a modern US president has ever levelled or hinted at.
And even if the two-week ceasefire does result in a permanent peace, the Iran war – and Trump’s recent words – may have fundamentally altered the way the rest of the world views the US.
A nation that once styled itself as a force for stability around the globe is now shaking the foundations of the international order. A president who has seemingly relished shattering norms and traditions in domestic politics is now doing the same on the world stage.
Democrats were quick to condemn Trump’s words on Tuesday, with some going so far as to call for his removal.
“It is clear that the president has continued to decline and is not fit to lead,” wrote Congressman Joaquin Castro on X.
Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the US Senate, said any Republican who did not join in voting to end the Iran war “owns every consequence of whatever the hell this is”.
While many in Trump’s own party stood by their president, it was far from the near-universal support he often enjoys.
