Strait of Hormuz: Trump delays attacks on Iranian energy sector by 10 days

2026-03-27 - 17:04

By Nkiruka Nnorom with agency reports US President Donald Trump has extended the deadline for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz by 10 days to 6 April as he continues to claim peace talks with Iran on the ongoing war are going very well. Trump had given Iran up to 48 hours last week to open the oil channel or risk attack on its energy facilities with Iran threatening in return to mine all access routes and communication lines in the Persian Gulf if Trump carries out his threat. Trump extended the deadline by another five days to Friday, March 27, after it seemed Tehran was adamant to respond to his wishes, before announcing a new deadline. This is even as Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Ishaq Dar confirmed that Islamabad was relaying messages between US and Iranian officials as part of mediation efforts to end the war, with Turkiye and Egypt also lending support. Announcing the extension in a social media post, Trump said: “As per Iranian Government request, please let this statement serve to represent that I am pausing the period of energy plant destruction by 10 days to Monday, April 6, 2026, at 8 P.M., Eastern Time. “Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media, and others, they are going very well.” Later, Trump told Fox News: “I gave them a 10-day period, they asked for seven.” He also continued to declare victory in the war, adding: “In a certain sense, we have already won.” Earlier, the US president had urged Iranian leaders to negotiate an end to the nearly month-long war or face further assassinations of senior officials amid intensified action by the US and Israel. That threat came as Israel said it had “blown up and eliminated” the Revolutionary Guards’ naval commander, Alireza Tangsiri, and several senior officers in a strike on the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. G7 foreign ministers demand an end to attacks on civilians in the US. Meanwhile, the foreign ministers of the G7 group of nations have called for an immediate stop to attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure in the US-Israel war on Iran. In a joint statement agreed on the second day of a G7 meeting in France, the ministers said they had underscored the importance of minimising the impact of the conflict on regional partners, civilian populations and critical infrastructure. The ministers also reiterated the need to restore safe and toll-free freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. The G7 members are the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, along with the European Union. Iran says hotels housing US soldiers in the region will be targeted Iran’s military, meanwhile, warned that hotels housing US soldiers across the Middle East region would be targets in its war with the United States and Israel. “When all the Americans (forces) go into a hotel, then from our perspective that hotel becomes American,” armed forces spokesman Abolfazl Shekarchi told state television on Thursday. “Should we just stand by and let the Americans strike us? When we respond, naturally, we have to strike wherever they are.” On Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had accused US soldiers of using people in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries as “human shields”. “From the outset of this war, US soldiers fled military bases in the GCC to hide in hotels and offices,” he said in a post on X, calling on hotels in the region to deny them bookings. The Fars news agency, quoting unnamed sources, said Iran had sent “firm warnings” to hotels in the region, particularly in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. It added that Iran’s military had identified US forces using similar locations in Syria, Lebanon and Djibouti. Iran accused its neighbours of allowing US forces to carry out attacks from their territory, but Gulf states have repeatedly denied the accusations, saying even before the war that they would not allow their territory or airspace to be used to attack Iran.