Trump orders conditional five-day pause on attacks on Iranian power plants

US President Donald Trump has ordered the Department of Defense to conditionally postpone any attacks on Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure for five days. He announced the move on the Truth Social network, saying the United States had held very good and productive talks with Iran over the past two days on ending the war in the Middle East entirely.

Trump made the pause in military action conditional on the success of current meetings and discussions, which he said would continue this week. He described the negotiations so far as, among other things, detailed and in-depth.

With his decision, Trump extended Saturday’s ultimatum, which gave the Middle Eastern country 48 hours to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz, under threat of destroying Iranian power plants.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards responded today with a statement saying that, in the event of such an attack, Tehran would retaliate by targeting Israeli power plants and power plants supplying electricity to US bases in the region.

Before the war began, around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies passed through the Strait of Hormuz. Threats and attacks on ships by Iran have reduced traffic by approximately 90 percent, leading to a sharp rise in oil and gas prices.