An armed police patrol as Iranians gather in Revolution Square in Tehran after the United States and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire, April 8, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. (Photo: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – Both the United States and Iran claimed victory on Wednesday, a day after agreeing to a two-week conditional ceasefire, though doubts emerged after continued strikes in Persian Gulf countries and Iran’s indication that it will continue to control the Strait of Hormuz, the main transport route for one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said during a morning briefing that the United States had won a “historic and overwhelming victory” but that troops were also “ready to resume operations at a moment’s notice.”
“We’re going to hang around here. We’re not going anywhere. We’re going to make sure that Iran respects the ceasefire, and then we’re going to finally come to the table and make a deal,” Hegseth said.
Oil prices fell sharply following news of the ceasefire, with international standard Brent crude hitting $95 a barrel by midday Eastern Wednesday. This is down from the previous day’s price of almost $110 a barrel.
US stock markets soared on Wednesday, with approx Dow Jones Industrial average, S&P500 AND Nasdaq Composite everything up.
According to Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who partially mediated the cessation of fighting, U.S. and Iranian delegations were scheduled to arrive in Islamabad on Friday for negotiations.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at an afternoon briefing that Vice President J.D. Vance, special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner would participate in the first round of talks Saturday morning.
Nuclear material
President Donald Trump said early Wednesday morning that the United States “will work closely with Iran, which we have determined has gone through a very productive regime change!”
“There will be no uranium enrichment, and the United States, working with Iran, will dig up and remove all deeply buried (B-2 bombers) nuclear ‘dust'” – Trump he wrote on his Truth Social platform, referring to buried enriched uranium in Iran after the massive US-Israeli bombing in June.
Pressed at the briefing, Hegseth said on the subject of nuclear materials: “We’re looking at it. We know what they have, and they’re giving it up, and we’re going to get it, and we’ll take it if we need to. We can do it by any means necessary. That’s why this is the issue that the president will solve.”
Hegseth ended the news conference by saying that Iranian society was “oppressed by the previous regime and will have new opportunities with it that remain to be seen,” adding that a civilian uprising “was not our goal.”
“We wish them all the best,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth’s claims of a civil uprising directly contradict Trump’s message to the Iranian people on February 28, when the United States and Israel began bombing.
Iran’s recent supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is the son of assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who led the Islamic Republic from 1989 until U.S. and Israeli attacks killed him hours after the end of the conflict. Experts point considers Mojtaba Khamenei a conservative hardliner with close ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Reports from all over Iran country media and regional news from the Middle East sockets Wednesday cited news that the regime’s Supreme National Security Council had declared a “historic and crushing defeat” over the United States and Israel.
Calls for invoking the 25th Amendment
Hegseth’s declaration of victory came after Trump on Tuesday threatened Iran “all civilization will die that night” if the regime fails to meet its self-imposed deadline of opening the Strait of Hormuz at 8 p.m. EST.
The comments were met with edged criticism, with some – from progressive Democrats to former Trump supporters – calling for the president’s removal under the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.
Two Senate Republicans, John Curtis of Utah and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, condemned Trump’s rhetoric and actions in recent days. They were also joined on Tuesday by one of the House Republicans, Nathaniel Moore of Texas.
The offices of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. did not respond to States Newsroom on Tuesday for comment on Trump’s remark that he would destroy Iran’s “entire civilization.” Neither of them posted any information about Trump’s comments on their X social media channels, where they regularly interact with the public.
Others continued to support Trump. Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., he said local media Tuesday “I take it with a pinch of salt” when asked about Trump’s vow to destroy Iranian civilization.
Leavitt told reporters at Wednesday’s White House briefing: “The world should take what he says very seriously.”
“He said they would face very serious consequences… by 8 p.m. if they did not agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. And what did they do last night? They agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz,” she said.
About 90 minutes before the deadline to order strikes on Iran’s power plants and bridges, the president agreed to halt bombing for two weeks after receiving a 10-point plan from Iran that “provides a workable basis for negotiations,” he said he wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
In a statement issued early Wednesday morning, Tehran time, Iran appeared to retain control of the narrow passage to and from the Persian Gulf.
“For two weeks, safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible thanks to coordination with the Iranian armed forces and due consideration to technical constraints,” said the country’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi in a written letter. statement published on social media.
Iranian drones and missiles
Strikes continued throughout the Persian Gulf region, as well as in the Kuwaiti Ministry of Defense reporting “intense wave” of Iranian drones and missiles that damaged oil infrastructure, power plants and water desalination plants.
“Ceasefire violations have been reported a) in several places in the conflict zone, which undermine the spirit of the peace process. I strongly and sincerely call on all parties to exercise restraint and respect the ceasefire for two weeks, as agreed, so that diplomacy can take the lead in a peaceful resolution of the conflict,” Sharif warned on X just after 10 a.m. EST.
The Pakistani prime minister tagged Trump and numerous administration officials, as well as Iranian leaders, in the post.
Israel continued its bombing of southern Lebanon, carrying out widespread strikes across the region and in the capital Beirut on Wednesday. By noon eastern, i.e. in the evening in Lebanon, the sanitary authorities he said 89 people died and over 700 were injured in the strikes. A Doctors Without Borders official reports from a vast public hospital in Beirut quoted higher death toll.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he claimed on Wednesday, it was posted on social media that “the two-week ceasefire does not cover Lebanon.”
When asked during Wednesday’s White House news conference, Leavitt echoed Netanyahu’s sentiments.
“Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire that all parties involved in the ceasefire are talking about,” she said.
