President Donald Trump delayed the latest deadline for Iran to reach a deal or reopen the Strait of Hormuz, moving it from Monday to Tuesday evening while framing the renewed timetable as the final one, according to The Associated Press. The decision came amid a sequence of shifting deadlines and escalating statements from Trump in recent weeks, as diplomacy with Tehran has stalled.
In the days leading up to the newest deadline, Trump repeatedly used Truth Social to set time-bound demands tied to Hormuz and Iran’s energy infrastructure. The earlier deadline he had cited was March 23, but he changed it several times in the weeks that followed, at times pairing postponements with statements that the negotiations were going well.
According to the AP report, Iran rejected the most recent cease-fire proposal, IRNA reported on Monday. Shortly after that, Trump delivered another warning to Iran, suggesting that without an agreement the punishment would be severe and reiterating that Tuesday night at 8 p.m. Eastern time (0000 GMT) was decisive.
The AP account traces how Trump’s earlier threats centered on power and related infrastructure. On March 21, Trump posted on Truth Social that if Iran did not “ABRE COMPLETAMENTE, SIN AMENAZAS, el estrecho de Ormuz” within 48 hours, the United States would attack and “aniquilar” Iran’s “PLANTAS ELÉCTRICAS.” Iran had until the night of March 23 to respond, the AP reported.
Less than a day before that deadline, Trump posted that he had directed the Defense Department to postpone military attacks on Iran’s “plantas eléctricas” and energy infrastructure for five days, writing that the delay was “subject to the success of the conversations.” That move pushed the deadline to the end of that week, continuing a pattern of abrupt deadline changes.
Trump later expanded his threats as additional deadlines approached. On March 30, he issued an ambiguous statement that the AP said both celebrated progress in talks and extended a bombing threat if an agreement was not reached “pronto.” In the same context, he wrote that the United States would end the standoff by flying in and destroying Iran’s power generation facilities, oil wells, and the Island of Jarg, and he referenced the possibility of also targeting desalination plants.
As the latest deadline neared, Trump’s statements intensified again, the AP said. In a Truth Social post, he asked whether Iran remembered when he had given them “diez días” to make an agreement or reopen the Strait of Hormuz, warning that time was running out and that “todo el infierno caiga” on them 48 hours before the deadline. On Sunday, he again pushed the warnings as the deadline approached, telling reporters the timing he had set for Tuesday and linking it to strikes on infrastructure, according to the AP account.
The AP report also says Trump suggested on Monday that Tuesday’s deadline would be final after he said he had already given Iran enough postponements. In the same period, he warned that “El país entero podría quedar eliminado en una noche,” and said he had a plan under the power of the U.S. military under which “cada puente en Irán será diezmado” at 12:00 a.m. on the night of the deadline, as described by the AP in quoting his statement.
The U.N. secretary-general, António Guterres, warned the United States that attacks on civilian infrastructure are prohibited under international law, the AP said, citing a statement from Guterres’s spokesperson. When Trump spoke with reporters, the AP reported that he said he was “para nada” concerned about committing war crimes involving attacks on that kind of infrastructure.
With the new deadline approaching, the AP reported that Iran’s position remains skeptical. Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, the head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Cairo, told the AP that Iran no longer trusts the Trump administration after the United States bombed the Islamic Republic twice during earlier rounds of talks. He said, “Solo aceptamos el fin de la guerra con garantías de que no volveremos a ser atacados.”
Still, the AP said some diplomacy may be continuing behind the scenes. A regional official involved in the talks told the AP, under a condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy, that efforts had not collapsed and that “Todavía estamos hablando con ambas partes.”
As the Tuesday deadline drew attention, the AP reported that an Israeli television broadcast showed a large digital clock counting down the time left for the Hormuz deadline, reflecting how tightly the statements have narrowed the diplomatic window.