Ten hours: this is the time it took between US President Donald Trump’s threat to wipe out Iran and his announcement of a ceasefire. Between the two, the world held its breath.
“A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” he initially warned on Truth Social.
Families all over the Middle East and beyond were bracing for the worst night since the start of the Iran war. Online, across different time zones, there was speculation about what type of missiles or bombs would be used.
The verdict came 10 hours later. “I agree to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks,” Mr Trump posted. A truce deal was brokered, the Strait of Hormuz could be reopened, and the Iranians and Americans had found a “workable basis on which to negotiate”.
So what happened in between those two posts?
After pushing back the time limit for a ceasefire agreement, the US President made it clear: Tuesday, April 7 at 8pm was the final deadline.
In his biggest threat against the civilisation of Iran, he also indicated a potential ceasefire deal in the making, speaking of “different, smarter and less radicalised minds”.
Western countries and politicians reacted to Mr Trump’s social media posts. Nigel Farage, of the right-wing Reform UK party, was one of Mr Trump’s biggest supporters, yet he publicly stated that he had gone “way too far” with his post. He also described Mr Trump as an “upset, angry American president”.
The EU issued a reminder that the only answer lay in diplomacy, and the President of the European Council Antonio Costa reiterated that striking civilian infrastructure would be “illegal and unacceptable”.
European leaders were also quick to comment. French President Emmanuel Macron alluded to Mr Trump’s social media postings when he said: “When you want to be serious, you don’t say every day the opposite of what you said the day before, and maybe you shouldn’t be speaking every day.” Tension between the two presidents has been on the rise for the past few months, with Mr Trump publicly mocking Mr Macron.
The US President was also accused of preparing to commit war crimes.
On the ground, Iran was still being attacked by both Israel and the US, with strikes on bridges, as well as on railways and transport planes. Meanwhile the world went silent, waiting for any news from the White House, Iran, or Pakistan, which is leading the negotiations.
Reports had been circulating online all night about potential US strikes on Iran, with American B-52 bombers said to be en route to Iran only hours before the ceasefire agreement was announced. They reportedly took off from the Fairford military base in the UK, but have not been traced.
Other rumours of nuclear weapons potentially being used also circulated on social media, following a speech by Vice President JD Vance in Hungary. In it, he declared that the US had tools that they “so far haven’t decided to use”.
Mr Vance then said that “the President can decide to use them and will decide to use them if the Iranians don’t change their course of conduct”. Although no indication was given as to what those “tools” were, many supporters of a strong war against Iran saw the possibility of a nuclear weapon being used against it.
While the world was bracing for further escalation, Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, posted on X around four and a half hours before the deadline. He called for a two-week ceasefire as negotiations appeared to be advancing.
“To allow diplomacy to run its course, I earnestly request President Trump to extend the deadline for two weeks. Pakistan, in all sincerity, requests the Iranian brothers to open the Strait of Hormuz for a corresponding period of two weeks as a goodwill gesture,” Mr Sharif wrote.
Minutes later, an Iranian official told Reuters that Tehran was ready to consider the proposal positively. This was followed by the White House indicating that Mr Trump was also considering the request, with reports circulating online of a deal in its final stages.
“This will be a double-sided ceasefire,” Mr Trump announced.
That was roughly 90 minutes before what could have been an overwhelming wave of strikes targeting civilian and military sites in Iran, an escalation that risked deepening the Middle East war and pushing it into far more dangerous territory.
