U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday warned of a renewed and more intense bombing campaign should Iran not finalize an agreement to end the war.
“Assuming Iran agrees to give what has been agreed to, which is, perhaps, a big assumption, the already legendary Epic Fury will be at an end, and the highly effective Blockade will allow the Hormuz Strait to be OPEN TO ALL, including Iran. If they don’t agree, the bombing starts, and it will be, sadly, at a much higher level and intensity than it was before. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” the president wrote on his Truth Social account.
His social media post followed an Axios report hours earlier that the the White House believes that the United States and Iran are nearing an agreement on a one-page, 14-point memorandum to end the war in the Middle East.
Israeli journalist Barak Ravid cited “two U.S. officials and two other sources briefed on the issue” in his reporting and that the sources said it was the closest the two sides have been to a deal since the war began on Feb. 28. A ceasefire took effect on April 8, which has since been extended. Pakistan has been mediating negotiations between Washington and Tehran, hosting direct talks last month.
A Pakistani source familiar with the talks confirmed the accuracy of the Axios report to Reuters. “We will close this very soon. We are getting close,” the Pakistani source said.
U.S. envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and several Iranian officials were directly and through mediators negotiating the agreement.
The report came hours after Trump announced a pause in Project Freedom, a U.S.-led initiative to escort commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz that began earlier this week.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the decision was made “based on the request of Pakistan and other countries” and cited “great progress” toward a potential agreement with Iranian representatives. He added that the U.S. naval blockade of Iran would remain in place.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a press briefing at the White House on Tuesday declared Epic Fury, the codename for the U.S. operation, over, saying that “the operation is over. Epic Fury is – the President notified Congress we’re done with that stage of it, okay? We’re now on to this Project Freedom.”
Pakistan’s foreign minister, Muhammad Ishaq Dar, said on Tuesday that progress is being made in U.S.-Iran ceasefire talks, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, which did not provide details. The two sides have held only one round of direct negotiations, when Vice President JD Vance traveled to Islamabad in April, though those talks produced no breakthrough.
