Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said Iran would open the Strait of Hormuz to commercial ships during the two-week period, allowing them safe transit through the corridor through which about a fifth of the world’s oil supplies and a fifth of the traded volume of liquefied gas passed before the war.

The passage of ships through Hormuz will be coordinated ‘with the Iranian Armed Forces’ and ‘technical constraints’ will be duly taken into account, according to Araqchi.

Trump wrote in another social media post on Wednesday morning that ‘the United States of America will help solve the traffic jam in the Strait of Hormuz’.

Israel backs ceasefire but excludes Lebanon

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said it supported President Trump’s decision to suspend strikes against Iran for two weeks, subject to Iran immediately opening the Strait of Hormuz and stopping all attacks on the US, Israel and countries in the region.

However, the office added that ‘the two-week ceasefire does not include Lebanon’. That contradicted Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who said the ceasefire applied to all fronts, including Lebanon.

Oil prices plummet, markets react by rising

Global financial markets reacted to the ceasefire by easing sharply. The price of US crude oil fell by around 15 per cent to $96.31 per barrel, while Brent weakened by 13 per cent to $95.36.

Investors reacted mainly on hopes that traffic through the Strait of Hormuz would resume.

Equity markets rallied sharply, with futures on the S&P 500 index up more than two per cent and European markets as well as Japan’s Nikkei adding roughly five per cent. South Korea’s KOSPI even rose by six per cent, leading to a brief pause in trading.

The dollar weakened significantly. Its index, which measures its value against a basket of six major currencies, hovered around 98.9, near a one-month low. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note fell to 4.247 per cent.

Analysts cautioned that this was only a short-term easing, as the conflict remains unresolved. The key, they said, will be whether confidence can be restored among shipping companies and insurers. Some experts warned that uncertainty may persist for several more months.

(ft, truth, reuters, sak)