From 48-hour Ultimatum To 5-day Pause: Trump Hints On De-escalation Amid West Asia Conflict

2 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Mar 23, 2026 07:40 PM IST

Two days after US President Donald Trump issued a 48-hour ultimatum to Iran, the Republican leader has signalled a de-escalation in the ongoing US-Israel Iran war, announcing a 5-day pause on military strikes against energy sites.

While Israel continued to strike the “heart of Tehran”, minutes after Trump made the announcement, the 79-year-old President said United States and Iran were negotiating a “total resolution of our hostilities in the Middle East,” and that he would postpone any American attacks on Iranian power plants by five days.

However, Iran refuted Trump’s claims saying there were no talks with the US adding his statement was “part of efforts to reduce energy prices and buy time for the implementation of his military plans.”

48-hour ultimatum

Both Tehran and Washington have been issuing contradicting statements since the beginning of the war and Trump has time and again made clashing statements about his next plans in the conflict. On Saturday, Trump had threatened to bomb Iran’s energy sites within 48 hours unless Tehran agreed to completely reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the oil shipping route in the Persian Gulf.

Following Trump’s 48-hour ultimatum, Oman said its working to establish “safe passage arrangements for the Strait of Hormuz.” “Whatever your view of Iran, this war is not of their making,” Badr al-Busaidi, foreign minister of Oman was quoted as saying by The New York Times. “This is already causing widespread economic problems and I fear they promise to get much worse if the war continues.”

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48-hour ultimatum

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