U.S. President Donald Trump is weighing a request from mediator Pakistan for a two-week extension to a deadline he imposed on Iran, and a response will come, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.
Trump's latest wildly provocative threat against Iran prompted severe criticism, with former allies calling for his removal from office.
But as the clock ticked towards Trump's 8:00 p.m. (midnight GMT) deadline, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif appeared to offer an off-ramp.
"To allow diplomacy to run its course, I earnestly request President Trump to extend the deadline for two weeks," Sharif said on X, saying that efforts to resolve the crisis were moving "steadily, strongly and powerfully."
Sharif said he had also asked Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz shipping channel for the same two-week period.
The White House said Trump – who has threatened massive attacks against Iran's power plants and bridges to take the country back into the "Stone Age" – was looking at the Pakistani request.
"The President has been made been aware of the proposal, and a response will come," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told AFP in a statement.
Trump, who has previously pushed back the deadline on a number of occasions, separately told Fox News that the United States was in "heated negotiations" but declined to say how they were going.
Since Feb. 28 the United States and its ally Israel have leveled Iranian military targets, killed the country's top leadership and devastated parts of its infrastructure.
Early Tuesday, Trump issued one of his most glaring threats of war.
"A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will," he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Vice President JD Vance offered his own threatening assessment of what may follow, warning Tehran that U.S. forces have tools they "so far haven't decided to use" against the Islamic Republic.
Iran has rejected U.S. pressure, with state media reporting that authorities are insisting that instead of a cease-fire, it wants a full end to the war.
On Truth Social, Trump left the door open for a last-hour agreement.
"Now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight," he wrote.
Trump's saber rattling has appalled critics.
"This is an extremely sick person," top U.S. Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer posted on X.
Former vice president Kamala Harris, Trump's Democratic rival in the 2024 U.S. election, called Trump's threats "abhorrent" and accused the Republican of planning war crimes.
Even some political figures once close to Trump are calling for his removal through the U.S. Constitution's 25th Amendment, which provides for a transfer of power if a president is unable to govern, particularly in the event of illness.
"25TH AMENDMENT!!! Not a single bomb has dropped on America," former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X. "We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness."
Anthony Scaramucci, a financier who briefly worked in Trump's first White House, urged Republicans to "wake up" because the president "is calling for A NUCLEAR STRIKE. Seek his removal immediately."
Team Trump denied that Vance's remarks contained any suggestion of nuclear attack.
"Literally nothing @VP said here 'implies' this, you absolute buffoons," the White House said on X.
The post was in response to one from an account associated with Harris, which said Vance implied Trump "might use nuclear weapons."
Meanwhile, a source claimed that "good news" is expected soon, after Pakistan's proposal.
Citing a regional source, CNN said "some good news is expected from both sides soon" and that discussions were steered directly by Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir.
The source added that a deal is expected to be closed tonight, according to the report.
