Trump allows Iran ceasefire to lapse after Tehran misses deadline for nuclear proposal

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday allowed the U.S.-Iran ceasefire to formally lapse after Tehran failed to deliver a written nuclear proposal through Pakistani intermediaries by the April 30 deadline, senior administration officials confirmed.

The collapse of the truce, announced from the Oval Office at 5:45 p.m. Eastern, ends nearly 14 weeks of back-channel diplomacy brokered by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's government. The proposal, which U.S. officials said was to outline a phased reduction of uranium enrichment from 60 percent to below 5 percent, unrestricted International Atomic Energy Agency access to the Fordow and Natanz facilities, and a freeze on deployment of IR-6 and IR-9 advanced centrifuges, never arrived at the Pakistani Foreign Ministry's designated channel in Islamabad. In return, Tehran had been expected to seek the unfreezing of roughly $6 billion in assets held in South Korean and Japanese banks and partial relief from secondary sanctions on its petrochemical sector.

"The President gave Tehran every reasonable opportunity. The deadline was clear, the terms were clear, and the Iranian regime chose silence," Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters at the State Department on Thursday afternoon. "The ceasefire is no longer in effect as of 6:00 p.m. Eastern."

National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, briefing reporters separately at the White House, said Iran's Supreme National Security Council had requested two extensions in April, both granted, before communications "effectively went dark" over the weekend. Waltz said two preliminary drafts had been rejected by U.S. negotiators in early April, and that no successor text was ever transmitted. He added that U.S. Central Command has repositioned the Gerald R. Ford and Nimitz carrier strike groups into the northern Arabian Sea, and that B-2 bombers have returned to forward rotation at Diego Garcia.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, in a statement issued from Islamabad, confirmed that no sealed document had been received for onward transmission to Washington. "Pakistan made every effort to facilitate dialogue between two nations at a critical juncture," Dar said. "We deeply regret that the opening was not seized."

In Tehran, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi accused Washington of "manufacturing a deadline to justify aggression," in remarks carried by state broadcaster IRIB. Iranian officials have not publicly addressed the missed submission.

Markets responded sharply. Brent crude jumped 7.4 percent to $94.20 a barrel in late Thursday trading, while the Tel Aviv 35 index fell 3.1 percent and the Tehran Stock Exchange's main index dropped nearly 5 percent on Friday morning. Lloyd's of London announced it was suspending hull insurance for tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz pending a risk reassessment Friday morning.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement from Jerusalem, said his government "stands fully prepared to act in defense of the region against an unrestrained Iranian nuclear program."

On Capitol Hill, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-Idaho) endorsed the President's decision and said hearings on authorization for the use of military force could begin next week, while Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) warned that "we are sleepwalking into a second Iran war without a vote, without a strategy, and without allies fully on board." Technical talks between U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian negotiators led by Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-Ravanchi, which had been tentatively scheduled to resume in Muscat on Sunday, have been canceled, a State Department spokesperson said.