Trump pivots from military victory to negotiation with Iran, dispatches Vance to Pakistan

The White House and the wider world clung to a “fragile truce” in the Middle East on Wednesday as President Trump worked to declare military victory over Iran and pivot to a negotiation phase that would lead to lasting peace.

Mr. Trump said he would use a two-week pause in hostilities to work closely with new Iranian leaders to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and ensure the regime cannot enrich uranium or pursue a nuclear bomb.

“Big money will be made. Iran can start the reconstruction process,” the president said on social media. “We’ll be loading up with supplies of all kinds, and just ‘hangin’ around’ in order to make sure that everything goes well.”

The White House said Mr. Trump is dispatching Vice President J.D. Vance and envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner to Islamabad for talks with Iran that will begin Saturday.

Mr. Trump agreed late Tuesday to pause his apocalyptic promise to order the death of “a whole civilization” after Iran agreed to open the Strait of Hormuz as part of a Pakistani-brokered temporary ceasefire.

Potential cracks in the tenuous peace emerged early and often Wednesday.

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SEE ALSO: Iran’s 10-point framework includes extreme demands contrary to U.S. positions

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Israel continued to pound Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon, prompting threats in Tehran to close the Strait of Hormuz again just as oil traffic started to pick up.

Iranian parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the Israeli strikes in Lebanon, combined with an alleged drone incursion and U.S. efforts to restrain uranium enrichment, violated the ceasefire.

“The deep historical distrust we hold toward the United States stems from its repeated violations of all forms of commitments — a pattern that has regrettably been repeated once again,” Mr. Ghalibaf said on social media.

Mr. Vance insisted that the U.S. and Iran had plenty of areas of agreement and questioned Mr. Ghalibaf’s language comprehension.

“I actually wonder how good he is at understanding English, because there are things that he said that, frankly, didn’t make sense,” Mr. Vance said.

At the White House, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said any attempt to violate the ceasefire by closing the Strait of Hormuz would be “completely unacceptable.”

Mr. Trump “wants to see the strait reopened immediately without limitation, and that’s something we’re going to hold them to,” Ms. Leavitt said.

It was unclear how much control Iran would retain over the strait or whether Tehran could charge tolls to fund reconstruction.

In an ABC News interview, Mr. Trump floated the idea of a joint venture between the U.S. and Iran to collect revenue from ships traversing the strait. A commercial cost did not exist before the war.

Ms. Leavitt said later that Mr. Trump mainly wants “the free, safe and immediate reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.”

The two sides also seemed to be working from different playbooks.

Iranian state media released a 10-point framework for peace negotiations with Washington that includes extreme demands that may be difficult to square with U.S. objectives.

The demands included the full lifting of U.S. sanctions, acceptance of Iran’s nuclear enrichment rights, continued Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz, payment of reparations for war damage, a U.S. commitment to halting all strikes and the withdrawal of U.S. forces from the region.

The proposal appeared to differ from the one that Mr. Trump deemed a “workable” framework for diplomatic talks.

The Persian-language version of the proposal, circulated by Iran’s Nour News and other outlets, included the reparations and uranium enrichment demands, but English-language versions omitted them.

Mr. Trump chafed at reports of competing proposals, saying the official negotiating points would be hammered out in private.

Time and again, Ms. Leavitt warned U.S. media not to accept Iranian talking points about the Strait of Hormuz or potential negotiating demands. She said Tehran has a penchant for doublespeak.

“What they’re saying publicly is different [from what they say] privately. We have seen an uptick of traffic in the strait today,” Ms. Leavitt said.

“The idea that President Trump would ever accept an Iranian wish list as a deal is completely absurd,” she said. “The president will only make a deal that serves the best interests of the United States of America.”

Markets responded positively to the ceasefire and the prospect of increased oil traffic after a month of supply shocks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 1,325 points, or 2.8%, and the price of Brent crude oil, an international benchmark, tumbled 13.3% to $94.75 per barrel. The development could reduce gasoline prices for American drivers.

Global leaders watched warily as they hoped for lasting peace and stability in the region.

“Violations of ceasefire have been reported at [a] few places across the conflict zone which undermine the spirit of peace process,” Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a chief mediator of the conflict, said on social media. “I earnestly and sincerely urge all parties to exercise restraint and respect the ceasefire for two weeks, as agreed upon, so that diplomacy can take a lead role towards peaceful settlement of the conflict.”

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, a chief critic of the war on Iran, welcomed Mr. Trump’s ceasefire but said the U.S. leader put out his own fire.

“Ceasefires are always good news. Especially if they lead to a just and lasting peace. But this momentary relief cannot make us forget the chaos, the destruction, and the lives lost,” Mr. Sanchez posted on social media. “The Government of Spain will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket.”

On Capitol Hill, Democrats demanded votes on measures that would constrain Mr. Trump’s military powers in the region. They said the campaign had been counterproductive.

“Trump is a military moron. His war, with a price tag of $44 billion and $4+ gas, made us worse off today than we were when he started it,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said on social media.

The U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes on Feb. 28 to dismantle Iran’s nuclear and missile capabilities and constrain its ability to fund terrorism in the region. Early strikes killed Iran’s supreme leader and other top officials, though Tehran’s reprisals against Persian Gulf nations and energy infrastructure raised fears of an entrenched conflict.

Hoping to pivot, the Pentagon and White House declared victory over Iran and said the military would act quickly if Tehran fails to uphold the ceasefire terms.

“Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said. “A capital V military victory.”

Ms. Leavitt said the military operation annihilated Iran’s navy, crushed its missile program and its drone capabilities, and dismantled the regime’s ability to make weapons that were deployed in terrorist campaigns around the world.

Most important, she said, Iran can’t build a nuclear weapon.

“The world has just witnessed a historically swift and successful military triumph,” Ms. Leavitt said.

She said ending Iran’s uranium enrichment program is a key point that must be included in a final deal.

Mr. Trump said one of the primary tasks will be digging up residual radioactive material, or nuclear dust, buried from previous U.S. attacks on Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

Mr. Vance said that whether the ceasefire holds will depend on whether trustworthy elements of the Iranian regime prevail.

“If the Iranians are willing in good faith to work with us, I think we can make an agreement,” the vice president said. “If they’re going to lie, if they’re going to cheat, if they’re trying then to prevent even the fragile truce that we’ve set up from taking place, then they’re not going to be happy, because what the president has also shown is that we still have clear military, diplomatic and, maybe most importantly, we have extraordinary economic leverage.”