Iran accepts ceasefire but warns: “Our hands remain on trigger”

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council announced Tuesday it has accepted a two-week ceasefire in the widening conflict with the United States, while warning that its forces remain poised to resume full-scale war at “the slightest error” by the American side.

The ceasefire, which takes effect immediately, will be followed by negotiations in Islamabad beginning Friday, with Pakistani officials expected to mediate between the two adversaries.

The announcement followed a day of intense military action, including a second U.S. strike on Iran’s strategic oil hub at Kharg Island and Israeli air raids targeting Iranian bridges and railways.

Iran’s statement was characteristically defiant. “This does not signify the termination of the war,” the council declared. “Our hands remain upon the trigger, and should the slightest error be committed by the enemy, it shall be met with full force.”

President Donald Trump, who earlier Tuesday had warned that “a whole civilization will die tonight” unless Iran reopened the Strait of Hormuz, swiftly reversed course.

The president announced he is pulling back on threats to widen U.S. attacks, including an array of bridges, power plants and other civilian infrastructure, contingent on Iran honoring the two-week pause and reopening the vital waterway through which approximately 20% of the world’s oil transits.

Trump’s apocalyptic warning earlier in the day “never to be brought back again” drew swift condemnation from Democrats, several of his own “Make America Great Again” supporters who have since broken with the president, and the first American pope, whose intervention added an unusual moral dimension to the political firestorm.

The military landscape remains volatile. A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that U.S. forces struck military targets on Kharg Island, the second such attack on the critical energy hub.

Israeli warplanes separately struck Iranian transportation infrastructure, raising questions about whether the ceasefire extends to Israel’s parallel military campaign.

On the home front, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian declared that 14 million Iranians, including himself, have volunteered to sacrifice their lives in the war, a figure double previous state media claims.

With Iran’s population at 90 million, the assertion, while impossible to verify, signals the regime’s determination to project an image of unified national resolve.