Two Week Ceasefire

At the last possible minute Iran and the US appear to agree to a ceasefire giving the Ayatollahs time to comply with many of the things needed to end the fighting. According to a report from The Jerusalem Post the 10 points Iran proposed were leaked:

The first of Iran’s points, according to IRNA, was the US committing to a stance of non-aggression towards the Iranian regime. The second demanded continued Iranian control over the Strait of Hormuz. The third term called for the US to accept Iran’s enrichment of uranium. 

The fourth and fifth points of the plan call for the lifting of all primary and secondary sanctions on Iran. The sixth and seventh points demanded the termination of all United Nations Security Council and International Atomic Energy Agency Board of Governors resolutions against the Iranian regime.

Iran’s eighth listed point called for all war damages in Iran to be paid for. The ninth called for the withdrawal of all US military forces in the region, and the tenth demanded the cessation of combat on all fronts of the war, including Israel’s ongoing confrontation with Lebanese terrorist organization, Hezbollah.

And there you have it if this list can be trusted which US President Trump appears to dispute when he posted this on social media:

Numerous Agreements, Lists, and Letters are being sent out by people that have absolutely nothing to do with the U.S.A. / Iran Negotiation, in many cases, they are total Fraudsters, Charlatans, and WORSE. They will be rapidly exposed after our Federal Investigation is completed. There is only one group of meaningful “POINTS” that are acceptable to the United States, and we will be discussing them behind closed doors during these Negotiations. These are the POINTS that are the basis on which we agreed to a CEASEFIRE. It is something that is reasonable, and can easily be dispensed with. It’s very much like Fake News CNN last night, headlining a “source” that had no power or authority to write a Letter claiming great authority. President DONALD J. TRUMP Apr 08, 2026, 11:04 AM

I have to admit if the 10 points we see from the article are accurate they would never be ones that the US agrees to as starting points. The only one I see as a start is opening up the Strait of Hormuz and then going from there. And right now, it appears Iran is reneging on that as we speak. Not a good start at all is it?

Playing Iranian Games

I was talking to some people this morning about my feelings on Iranian negotiations and I said that any deal will be broken and that if just one Ayatollah is left standing they will call it a victory. Apparently I’m not the only that sees it this way as we read in an article from the Gatestone Institute:

If this war stops with the regime still standing, still organized, and still capable of rebuilding, Tehran will do what it always does: declare survival a victory, turn endurance into propaganda, and return more dangerous than before. A wounded regime is not a reformed regime. It is often a more vindictive one. A ceasefire that leaves the regime structurally intact is not peace. It is an intermission. It is a guarantee that the same threat will return in altered form, demanding a higher price later. But military pressure alone cannot write the final chapter. That chapter belongs to the Iranian people. Trump has already helped shatter the myth that Tehran is untouchable. He should not now allow the regime to survive this war by pretending survival is strength. He should finish the job. It must end with Iran's terror state broken, America's allies strengthened, deterrence restored, and the opening of a different future for Iran and for the Middle East.

You can read more of this article on your own, but this point must be made that the current Iranian regime relies on chaos to be in control:

For decades, the Islamic Republic has armed proxies, fueled sectarian conflict, intimidated Arab governments, threatened Israel, undermined regional security, and treated terror not as an exception but as an instrument of policy. Chaos is not an accidental byproduct of the regime. Chaos is its method. That is why this moment cannot end in another half-measure.

The author maintains that nothing of the current regime must remain if change is to happen:

If this war stops with the regime still standing, still organized, and still capable of rebuilding, Tehran will do what it always does: declare survival a victory, turn endurance into propaganda, and return more dangerous than before. A wounded regime is not a reformed regime. It is often a more vindictive one.

And the trouble is from inside Iran as well:

And the danger is not only external. It is internal as well. If the regime survives this war with enough of its coercive machinery intact, it will tighten repression at home, claim renewed legitimacy through defiance, and intensify the persecution of its own people. It will imprison more dissidents, crush more protests, silence more women, and brutalize more students. The Iranian people are not partners of the regime in this confrontation. They are its first victims.

If Trump is to follow through with his promise to the protesters then the current regime must be totally removed:

This is where too many European analysts still fail to understand the stakes. The issue is not simply whether Iran can absorb military punishment. The issue is whether the regime will be allowed to convert survival into political recovery. If it does, then this war will have achieved far less than it should.

A Clear Goal

Thee Ayatollahs must be totally shattered:

That is why the objective must be stated plainly. Not another fake diplomatic reset. Not another cosmetic agreement that buys Tehran time. Not another pause dressed up as strategy. The goal must be to break the regime's machinery of coercion so thoroughly that it can no longer threaten Israel, blackmail the Gulf, dominate its own people through terror, or hold the region and the global economy hostage. This is not an argument for endless war. It is the opposite. It is an argument against strategic hesitation.

Nothing short of that is acceptable. Nothing. If Iranians are to rise up they need no functioning opposition:

A conflict without a clear political end-state only postpones the next crisis. A ceasefire that leaves the regime structurally intact is not peace. It is an intermission. It is a guarantee that the same threat will return in altered form, demanding a higher price later. But military pressure alone cannot write the final chapter. That chapter belongs to the Iranian people. Years of corruption, repression, economic ruin, and ideological brutality have hollowed out this regime from within. Women have resisted. Students have resisted. Workers have resisted. Families have resisted. Ordinary Iranians have shown remarkable courage in the face of a system that has stolen dignity, prosperity, and freedom from an ancient nation. They deserve more than sympathy. They deserve an opening. Once the regime's coercive capacity is broken far enough, the center of gravity must shift inward. The free world should speak not only about Iran, but to Iranians — to the women who refused humiliation, to the youth who refused silence, to the workers who refused fear, and to all those who know their country deserves better than clerical violence and permanent captivity. That would be the real victory.

Great damage has been done, but that isn’t enough:

Not just damaged facilities. Not just destroyed launchers. Not just another temporary restoration of deterrence. A real victory would mean a regime unable to recover its old posture, a stronger alignment among responsible regional states, restored deterrence in the Gulf, and an Iranian people finally given the chance to reclaim their nation.

We can’t deny that Trump hasn’t done a lot. But if the help he promised is delivered, this ceasefire isn’t all that is needed:

Trump has already helped shatter the myth that Tehran is untouchable. He should not now allow the regime to survive this war by pretending survival is strength. He should finish the job. It must end with Iran's terror state broken, America's allies strengthened, deterrence restored, and the opening of a different future for Iran and for the Middle East.

I might add that the article doesn’t address one of the main issues for Christians around the globe. Free Iran so they have the freedom of speech and religion so the Great Commission can explode there and in the whole region.