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The US and Iran are considering a two-week ceasefire extension to allow more time to negotiate a peace deal, according to a person familiar with the matter, reducing the risk of renewed fighting despite an intensifying standoff over the Strait of Hormuz.

With the initial truce due to expire next week, mediators are seeking technical talks to overcome the most contentious issues preventing a longer-term agreement, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive matters. Those include reopening Hormuz and the future of Iran’s nuclear program.

Tensions remain high over the strait, a critical waterway for oil and gas that’s been effectively shuttered since the start of the war almost seven weeks ago. The US has set up a naval blockade to cut off Iranian shipments, and said Wednesday that 10 vessels have been forced to turn around. Tehran is keeping the strait closed to most other traffic.

The standoff has reduced transit to a trickle, exacerbating an energy supply crisis that threatens the global economy.

Fighting between the US and Iran has been on hold since about April 8, shortly after a two-week ceasefire was announced by President Donald Trump the previous evening. An initial round of peace talks was held in Pakistan last weekend, though participants including US Vice President JD Vance departed without a deal.

The US hasn’t “formally requested an extension of the ceasefire,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Wednesday. But she acknowledged “we remain very much engaged in these negotiations.”

The US is sending thousands of additional troops to the Middle East in the coming days to pressure Tehran into making a deal or to prepare for strikes if the ceasefire ends, the Washington Post reported, citing current and former officials it didn’t name. The forces include about 6,000 troops on the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush and in its strike force.

Pakistan’s military said a delegation from the country arrived in Iran on Wednesday, with Islamabad continuing to mediate between the sides.

Iran sees a prolonging of the US blockade as “a prelude to a breach of the ceasefire,” said Ali Abdollahi, the commander of Iran’s joint military headquarters, according to state TV. Iran’s armed forces “will not permit any exports or imports to continue in the Persian Gulf, the Sea of Oman or the Red Sea” if the blockade continues, he said.

Oil steadied on signs the US and Iran may restart talks. Brent was stable below $95 a barrel after ending Wednesday barely changed — well below last month’s peak of nearly $120.

While Israel joined the US in halting attacks on Iran last week, its military has kept up the campaign against Tehran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, complicating the broader push for peace.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he told the Israeli military — which invaded Lebanon last month — to expand the buffer zone it’s seeking to establish inside the country.

Negotiations are taking place about a potential ceasefire, Israel’s state-owned Kan News reported earlier Wednesday, citing an unnamed official, who added no decision has been made.

The leaders of Israel and Lebanon will hold talks Thursday, Trump said in a post on social media. “It has been a long time since the two leaders have spoken, like 34 years,” he said, without giving details on the format of the discussions.

Talks between Israel and the government in Beirut — which has little sway over Hezbollah — began Tuesday in Washington. The conflict has killed more than 2,000 people and displaced a million, according to Lebanese authorities.

Those negotiations aren’t linked to the US-Iran talks, according to a senior American official. The US wants a durable peace in Lebanon but did not demand an immediate ceasefire, the official said.

Trump has vacillated between declaring the conflict with Iran nearly won and threatening escalation, while questions remain about what drove the US and Israel to launch the latest bombardment — chief among them concerns over Iran’s nuclear program. Trump told the New York Post he’s unhappy about reports that the US proposed a two-decade moratorium on enrichment, saying Iran must never be allowed to have nuclear weapons.

The whereabouts of Iran’s uranium have been unknown since the US and Israel bombed the country’s nuclear facilities in June last year, and International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors have been barred access since then.

Iran has always said it isn’t pursuing a weapons program. The country’s right to peaceful use of nuclear energy “cannot be revoked,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told reporters Wednesday. However, the level and type of enrichment are “negotiable,” he added.

Trump pulled out of a global accord to limit Iran’s nuclear program during his first term. In the past year, his envoys held several rounds of meetings with Iranian counterparts to discuss a potential replacement. In February, Iran made offers that went beyond the 2015 accord, according to Omani officials mediating those talks — which were broken off when the US and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28.

John Kerry, who as secretary of state in the Obama administration was a key player in Iran nuclear negotiations in the 2010s, told Bloomberg TV that Trump’s blockade could be a “smart decision” to pressure Iran, but only if the US is prepared to compromise. From Iran’s perspective, he said, “they’d love it if people who make an agreement with them were to keep the agreement. And that’s part of their fear here, that there is no trust.”

Even with a deal, restoring Gulf energy flows may take time, adding to fears of global inflation. There are also concerns about disruptions to other supplies, particularly fertilizer, where shortages could hurt food output and raise prices.

The United Nations is ready to set up a corridor to move fertilizer through Hormuz in time for planting, though it hinges on a political agreement, according to a top UN official.

Top photograph: A plume of smoke rises after a strike on the Iranian capital Tehran, on March 3, 2026. Photographer: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images

Topics USA