Transcript of Trump-Iran Ceasefire, Iran On Trump's Reversal, Markets React To Reopening Of Hormuz New

President Trump agreed to a ceasefire with Iran shortly before his self-imposed deadline to end its civilization.

Iran still controls the Strait of Hormuz, which is to open for 2 weeks during negotiations.

I'm Leila Faldin. That's Steve Inskeep. And this is Up First from NPR News. What exactly is in the agreement that stops the war? Iranians assert the U.S. agreed to negotiate final terms on the basis of their proposal. President Trump did not get the regime change he Israel says the ceasefire does not include its invasion of Lebanon.

Also, what does a ceasefire mean for global markets? Oil prices went up Tuesday morning, then quickly fell as the news spread. Analysts warn the damage to oil infrastructure will keep prices elevated. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day. United States officials are talking about the ceasefire in the war with Iran. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke with reporters this morning, and he claimed victory.

President Trump forged this moment. Iran begged for this ceasefire, and we all know it.

The president posted on social media that he had agreed to a 2-week ceasefire on the condition that Iran agrees to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. But that ceasefire already seems shaky. Iran has fired missiles, and Israel is carrying out a series of intense and deadly attacks from the south of Lebanon to central Beirut right now. Israel says Lebanon is not included in the ceasefire, where it's expanding its invasion. Iran says it is.

In a moment, we'll talk with a former commander of U.S. military operations across the Middle East. We begin with NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez. Franco, welcome back.

Thank you, Steve.

Okay, so what do you make of this dramatic change?

Yeah, I mean, it is quite the walking back from his bombastic post yesterday. And actually over the weekend when Trump used the F-word telling Iran to open the strait, you know, Trump wrote on social media that he made the decision based on conversations with the prime minister of Pakistan. You know, Trump said the U.S. received a 10-point proposal from Iran, which Trump described as a workable basis on which to negotiate, though the details do remain fluid. He did add some details, though, about the deal on Wednesday morning, claiming the deal would include no enrichment of uranium and said the U.S. would be working with Iran to, quote, dig up and remove all of that deeply buried nuclear material in the mountain. He also said the U.S. is talking tariff and sanction relief with Iran.

Really interesting to hear the president say there is discussion of nuclear material because we hadn't heard that as part of this deal before. How significant overall is this?

No, absolutely. I mean, it's very specific— significant, especially if they get to that nuclear material. And we should be clear, though, that Trump is often using kind of this belligerent language, that the threats, frankly, that he made over the last 72 hours were really breathtaking in how, you know, scary they were. It's, of course, never a bad thing to kind of avoid the dire scenario that Trump was kind of describing, but by backing down, Trump also risks damaging his own credibility. I mean, he's likely to face some criticism, even more so now that he has a reputation of backing down from some of his most threatening rhetoric.

Okay, so the Iranians have proclaimed that the basis for these negotiations are the Iranian proposal. To what extent has the United States signed on to that proposal?

Yeah, I mean, they definitely say that this is a proposal that's really just still in the works. I mean, Trump again said this was something to work with, but hasn't necessarily agreed to it. You know, Trump is meeting today with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House, where this is expected to be a big part of the discussions. You know, Steve, Trump clearly wants this war to end. Trump later posted that the ceasefire was a big deal for world peace. But Trump also says the military is going to be, quote, just hanging out to enforce the deal. So we'll see what happens over the course of the next 2 weeks. I mean, it's potentially a really cycle.

I don't get the sense, Franco, that this is exactly where the president expected to be when he launched this war more than a month ago.

No, I agree. I mean, I think Trump really underestimated Iran's resilience. I mean, that is the take of many analysts, including Nate Swanson, who worked on the Iran portfolio in the Obama administration and the early Trump years. He told me that Trump took this position that if he put enough pressure on Iran, that eventually they would capitulate.

And in some ways, Iran's, you know, obviously weakened and they've been struck however many, 25,000 times or whatever the number is now, you know, but they're strategically, they have a new pillar of their security architecture that didn't exist before this war. And so in some ways they're stronger.

Yeah, I mean, he's talking about the Strait of Hormuz, of course, which he says is a much more tangible way to inflict immediate pain on the US and global markets. And even in Trump's post seems to acknowledge that Iran now has the power over the Strait. It's a new tool in their arsenal.

NPR's Franco Ordoñez, thanks so much.

Thanks, Steve.

The U.S. and Iran have reached a ceasefire deal shortly before President Trump's self-imposed deadline for Iran to meet his demands or face annihilation. Now negotiations will begin on a longer-term deal. Trump said a 10-point plan from Iran will be the basis of those talks, but since the announcement, Iran has fired missiles and Israel has carried out a series of deadly attacks, including in central Beirut. For the latest, we're joined by NPR's Deepa Vas, who is reporting from Turkey's border with Iran. Good morning, Dee.

Hey, Leila.

So this is supposed to be a pause in the fighting, but this morning we're still seeing attacks. What's going on?

Right. Well, there were missiles flying into Israel and several Gulf Arab states after the agreement was announced last night. And the Israeli military is continuing to strike Lebanon today. Massive explosions were just heard in Beirut and beyond. And Lebanon was supposed to be part of this ceasefire deal, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office released a statement this morning saying that Israel supports the ceasefire, that this 2-week deal does not include Lebanon. And we're really seeing that today in what the Israelis are calling their largest strikes there. And they've been fighting Iranian-backed Hezbollah forces primarily in southern Lebanon, with hostilities really escalating in recent weeks. Now, Hezbollah announced this morning that it is abiding by the terms of that ceasefire, and Iran says the exclusion of Lebanon in this deal is unacceptable. But an Israeli source not authorized to speak to the media told NPR that President Trump had a phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the ceasefire was announced. And this is domestically problematic for Netanyahu. Opposition leader Yair Lapid on X said that Netanyahu wasn't even included in the negotiations and called it a political and strategic failure.

Yeah, and I'll point out that it's a fight between Israel and Hezbollah, but the effect on civilians cannot be underscored enough. Okay, so fighting continues, but both the U.S. and Iran Iran have agreed to this pause. We are hearing Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth saying now the US had a decisive military victory and Iran begged for the ceasefire. What are Iranian officials saying?

Iranian state media is spinning this as a big victory for Iran. And Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Ayoushi, posted a statement on X expressing his gratitude to Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, you know, for brokering this ceasefire. But his statement also makes one thing really clear. Iran will continue to control the Strait of Hormuz and any ships that are granted passage over the next weeks will do so on Iran's terms. And President Massoud Pesechkian also posted on Next that the country stands together. So in Iran, there's some relief, but people are also wary. You know, the former minister of communication, Mohammad Javad Azari-Jahromi, was quoted on state media saying, quote, "Experience has shown that the start of negotiation does not mean the end of hostilities." And he urged people to remain ready and vigilant.

And how are ordinary Iranians feeling about this?

Well, as I said, state media is really showing this as a win. They're showing images of people jubilantly waving flags in the streets. And that's obviously the image the government wants to project. But, you know, Leyla, for many, the ceasefire effectively means the end of any hope they had of real regime change. I spoke to a woman from Tehran who just crossed the border into Turkey a couple of days ago about the potential for a ceasefire. And she didn't want to be named, fearing reprisal for when she returns home. And here's what she said. She's addressing Trump directly, saying, "You came and killed so many of our people. You damaged our infrastructure." And then she goes on to say this. She says that what this war effectively triggered in Iran was a military coup. And now the country is entirely under the control of the Revolutionary Guard, which is far more hardline than the previous Supreme Leader.

So what's next?

Well, first, let's see if everyone sticks to the terms of this agreement. But U.S. and Iran are to meet in Islamabad on Friday to continue negotiations. But they're very far apart in some key points, including uranium enrichment. Iran wants to continue doing that. That is strictly against Israel and U.S. demands. And they also want to continue to control the Strait of Hormuz. So we'll see what comes out of the next round of talks on Friday.

That's NPR's Deepa Vas in Van, Turkey. Thank you, Deepa.

Thank you.

OK, oil prices are falling this morning, as you would imagine. Global investors are absorbing the news of this ceasefire and an end, for the moment, of a threat to bomb Iran's power plants and bridges.

Asian and European markets rallied, with Japan's Nikkei gaining the most in almost a year. On Wall Street, the Dow jumped more than 1,300 points, or nearly 3%, in morning trading. The benchmark S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq also surged.

Sounds pretty good. Talk it through, though, with NPR's Maria Aspin. Good morning.

Good morning.

Okay. What are investors seeing and feeling?

So there is a whole lot of relief out there, but I hate to throw some cold water on this. We have to see how long it will last because this is just the latest twist in what's already been a really turbulent spring for Wall Street and global markets. Investors are swinging from hope to fear and back again. Last week, Wall Street had a its best day since last spring. But stocks are still down since the start of the year, and U.S. markets just ended their worst quarter in nearly 4 years.

Yeah, I was just looking at this chart. It's a steady path downward. Is that just been about the war?

There is more going on in the markets. But Steve, the war is absolutely the biggest story right now. It's already created an energy crisis with the virtual shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz. And as you know, that's made oil prices soar. Which affects not only what we pay at the gas pump, but also what companies pay for shipping and trucking. And that then increases what we as consumers pay for everything. And then meanwhile, as President Trump makes threats and then de-escalates the war, there's just been this tremendous whiplash on Wall Street as markets sell off and then rally. I talked about all this last week with Katie Klingensmith. She's the chief investment strategist for the financial advisor Edelman Financial Engines.

What we often see during times of heightened uncertainty and volatility is we'll see a big day in markets and a terrible day in markets and a big day in markets and a terrible day in markets. Nobody enjoys that.

And as she points out, that can make everyone just not sure what to do next, whether we're talking investors on Wall Street or all of us on Main Street.

Let's just talk about reality here, though. The president says extreme things all the time and then backs away almost all the time. Why have investors this year been reacting in such extreme ways?

Sell?

Buy?

Well, the Iran war is a little different than all the tariff whiplash we saw last year. I mean, what happens next in this case is not just up to the president. A lot does depend on how Iran responds to what he does. And the war has already had that real impact on gas and diesel prices. That's maybe more immediate than the price spikes we saw with some of the more extreme tariffs. The tariffs Trump unveiled a year ago and then kind of moderated. A war is also just harder to unwind than tariffs.

This is how Klingensmith puts it: We are likely to see higher oil prices even if we see a quick de-escalation of the conflict because there has been extensive structural damage done to oil refineries and infrastructure in the Middle East.

And as she points out, that damage will take a lot more time to fix even if the war ends tomorrow.

Are investors and observers ever suspicious about the way the The president keeps moving the markets up and down?

Well, some investors tell me this is just what Trump does and says. This is how he negotiates. And they're trying to shrug off the noise and remain focused on what else is going on in the economy. But what the president does and says still has real impact in the markets. His threat yesterday to wipe out civilization pushed markets down. The ceasefire seems likely to push them back up. And to your point, Steve, this is a pattern that we've seen a few times. Since the war began. And observers have noticed a lot of well-timed stock trades in both traditional markets and the newer prediction markets.

NPR's Maria Aspin, thanks so much.

Thank you.

And that's Up First for this Wednesday, April 8th. I'm Steve Inskeep.

And I'm Leila Fawzan. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Rebecca Metzler, Gerry Holmes, Rafael Naam, Muhammad Al-Bardisi, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Butch and Ava Pukac. Our director is Katie Klein. We get engineering support from Nisha Hynez. Our technical director is Carly Strange. And our supervising producer is Michael Lipkin. Join us again tomorrow.