April 8 (Reuters) – Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday requested that U.S. President Donald Trump make a two-week extension to a deadline he imposed on Iran to end its blockade of Gulf oil.
“To allow diplomacy to run its course, I earnestly request President Trump to extend the deadline for two weeks. Pakistan, in all sincerity, requests the Iranian brothers to open Strait of Hormuz for a corresponding period of two weeks as a goodwill gesture,” Sharif said in a post on X.
Trump has given Iran until 8 p.m. EDT (0000 GMT) in Washington – 3:30 a.m. in Tehran – to end its blockade of Gulf oil or see the U.S. destroy every bridge and power plant in Iran.
Sharif urged “all warring parties” to observe a ceasefire everywhere for two weeks “to allow diplomacy to achieve conclusive termination of war”.
He added that diplomatic efforts to settle the war peacefully were “progressing steadily, strongly and powerfully with the potential to lead to substantive results in near future”.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sources told Reuters on Tuesday that talks between the U.S. and Iran were at risk of being derailed following Tehran’s attacks on Saudi Arabian industrial facilities.
Pakistan has been the main go-between for proposals shared by Iran and the United States, but there has been no sign of a compromise.
(Reporting by Gursimran Kaur in Bengaluru; Editing by Franklin Paul and Cynthia Osterman)
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