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New Delhi: A little over an hour before his 8 PM EDT deadline to launch what he had framed as a genocidal bombing campaign against Iran and its civilisation, U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly announced a two-week suspension, calling Iran’s 10-point peace proposal “workable”.

Iran welcomed Trump’s acceptance of the “general framework” of the Iranian proposal and said that if the attacks on Iran were halted then Tehran too would cease its “defensive operations” and allow safe passage for shipping through the Strait of Hormuz for two weeks, during which time it would pursue negotiations with the US, which had a 15-point proposal of its own.

Officially, the breakthrough came in response to a last-minute request by Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif, who posted a tweet in which he also said the ceasefire would cover the “allies” of both sides, including the ongoing hostilities in Lebanon.

© The Wire