President Trump on Thursday extended a deadline for Iran to agree to a deal to permanently end its nuclear ambitions or face continued military bombardment, including the destruction of its energy sites.
He announced he would pause plans to bomb Iran’s energy infrastructure for 10 days, until April 6, because “talks are ongoing, and despite statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media, and others, they are going very well.”
Mr. Trump’s offer extended a deadline that was set to expire Saturday.
Iran was given more time to ponder its fate a day after it reportedly rejected a U.S. ceasefire plan and issued its own demands, saying it would not negotiate with the U.S.
Mr. Trump called the report “fake news.”
He denied claims that Iran doesn’t want to negotiate and said the regime is, in fact, “begging to work out a deal.”
Earlier Thursday, stocks dropped sharply and oil prices climbed as nervous investors worried that the war was dragging on and intensifying.
Operation Epic Fury, a joint attack on Iran carried out by the U.S. and Israel, began Feb. 28 and has wiped out Iran’s air defense system and navy, along with many top Iranian leaders. Iran continues to fire missiles at Israel and other nations in the region. Iran has mostly shut down cargo and oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, although Mr. Trump said Iran allowed 10 tankers to pass through the strait in what he described as a goodwill gesture.
The U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said the U.S. presented a 15-point “action list” to the Pakistani government, which is acting as an intermediary for Iran, as the framework for a peace deal.
Mr. Witkoff said “strong and positive messaging talks” have followed. U.S. negotiators are working to convince Iran that the war is at an inflection point, with no alternative other than continued death and destruction if the regime does not agree to a deal.
“We have strong signs that this is a possibility, and if a deal happens, it will be great for the country of Iran, for the entire region and the world at large,” Mr. Witkoff said.
Mr. Trump and his Cabinet, in their first meeting since the war began, offered a robust defense of the U.S. decision to attack Iran, which will enter Day 27 on Friday. He said the U.S. military and Israel were knocking out significant Iranian military assets and leadership, weakening the regime substantially.
“We are absolutely obliterating them,” Mr. Trump said.
Israel announced Thursday that it had killed Alireza Tangsiri, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps navy, who played a major role in blocking traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tangsiri was killed along with other senior naval commanders in an overnight strike.
U.S. polling by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows weak support for ground troops among Republican voters. Only 20% of Republican voters said they favor deploying U.S. military ground forces in Iran, an option that remains on the table. Mr. Trump may need ground forces to seize Iran’s uranium, which is a goal if Iranian leaders don’t agree to end their nuclear program.
Among Republican voters, 63% said they backed the ongoing airstrikes inside Iran, while 6 in 10 Republicans said they were at least somewhat worried about rising gas prices. The national average price of a gallon of gasoline has risen about a dollar since the war started, to $3.98, the highest since June 2022.
Mr. Trump said oil prices, which hovered around $92 a barrel, haven’t risen as sharply as he expected and would plummet once the war is over, which he said can happen quickly if Iran negotiates in good faith. If not, then the U.S. will keep dropping bombs.
“They now have the chance to permanently abandon their nuclear ambitions and to join a new path forward. We’ll see if they want to do it. If they don’t, we’re their worst nightmare,” Mr. Trump said. “In the meantime, we’ll just keep blowing them away, unimpeded, unstopped. Well, there’s not a thing they can do about they can’t do anything about it.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the bombardment of Iran had sunk 150 Iranian naval vessels, destroyed 10,000 enemy targets and left Iran’s defense industrial base in a shambles.
“This is not chaos. This is success. Pure American success, on plan, and as the president said, ahead of pace.”
Mr. Trump acknowledged the war’s negative impact on the U.S. economy and called the stock market downturn “a short-term hit” that would rebound “much higher than it was.”
He said he would consider suspending the 18.4-cent-per-gallon federal gasoline tax.
“People have talked about it,” Mr. Trump said. “It’s something we have in our pocket.”
Appearing on Fox News’ “The Five,” Mr. Trump said the Iranian people have not risen up to overthrow the weakened Iranian regime because the government is taking people out with sniper fire and has warned protesters that authorities would kill them.
“They are being shot, one after another,” Mr. Trump said.
