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By Murray Hunter
ON April 8, news came through that both the United States and Iran had agreed to a 14-day ceasefire after six weeks of war.
The ceasefire announcement came after days of US President Trump promising to annihilate Iran and bomb the country into the Stone Age. Trump’s profanities continued all through Easter, where Trump said: “A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again”.
This apocalyptic language was labelled by some as proof of war crimes, clearly showing Trump’s personal intentions. One-time supporter of Trump and self-professed Christian Tucker Calson called Trump the Antichrist, while several commentators and politicians have questioned Trump’s mental faculties, calling on his vice president, JD Vance and cabinet to enact the 25th Amendment of the United States Constitution to remove Trump from office.
There was no doubt that those in authority in Washington knew of the grave mistake the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Zionist lobby in the United States had got President Trump into. A two-day military action to take out the Iranian leadership in a decapitation action has led to an all-out war in the Gulf, leading to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and economic hardship on the world due to oil shortages.
Trump needed an ‘off-ramp’ and called for a ceasefire with a 15-point plan to save face. He was lucky that Iran agreed to the ceasefire, which was announced, leading to an immediate decrease in global oil prices.
However, Netanyahu’s position would be devastated by any ceasefire that would leave Israel in tatters after a war that gave Israel nothing. It’s reported that Netanyahu was furious over Trump’s call for a ceasefire without any Israeli consultation. Immediately, Israel increased attacks in Lebanon, and there are reports that Iran was also attacked.
There are also reports about attacks going on between the Emirates and Saudi Arabia with Iran, but at the time of writing, nothing could be factually confirmed. Hezbollah is now retaliating against Israel.
Thus, the future of the ceasefire is in extreme doubt.
There are those within the Iranian leadership and military who are also not happy with the ceasefire. According to reports, there is a feeling across Iran that the job against the US, Gulf states, and Israel is unfinished.
Iranians have suffered too much for a ceasefire to be called. Secondly, there is very little trust in the United States word on negotiations after Iran has been attacked two times while it was negotiating with the US.
Nevertheless, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council confirmed its acceptance of the ceasefire and said that negotiations with the US would begin in Islamabad on April 10, with a two-week period that may be extended by mutual agreement.
There are many questions as to whether both sides have any agreement on principle to the terms of any ceasefire. The Pakistani prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, publicly said Lebanon is part of the agreed ceasefire, but Israel has not stopped its aggression. Trump has already repudiated parts of the terms on the table.
There is now a window open for diplomacy. However, it is a very narrow one, and no one is sure whether negotiators from each side will even turn up in Islamabad tomorrow. Media sources confirm US Vice President JD Vance, who is now in Budapest, Hungary, assisting the election campaign of Viktor Orban. Vance might be the only person the Iranians may be willing to speak with, and Trump may give this job to Vance, as he is the only one left in his administration with any credibility left.
Trump needs to withdraw from the war. It may even be too late for him already, as his MAGA support base is rapidly leaving him. A well-crafted negotiation by Vance may save Trump in the short term, but there is growing talk in the US about the need to remove him from office. The US may be strongly tempted to leave the war without having Israel and its Zionist ambition in the equation.
Such a deal would change the Middle East. A future region would no longer have any US military presence. The Gulf states would have to make their own way, and the map of the region could easily change with some of the family dictatorships leaving. Iraq is open to moving into Kuwait.
However, if Israel has Zionist designs for a greater Israel and Netanyahu needs a war to politically survive, there can be no end to the war. Lebanon will still be an open question, and the issue of Gaza will remain unresolved.
These issues may not be able to be resolved in Islamabad over the next few days. – April 10, 2026
The observations reflect the writer's personal insights and do not necessarily represent the official stance of The Vibes.com