President Donald Trump on Thursday postponed his threat to bomb Iranian energy infrastructure for a second time, citing the positive status of ongoing negotiations. Other aspects of the war are proceeding unabated, however, and the U.S. is building up troops in the region in preparation for a potential major blow. Americans, meanwhile, know little about the conflict except its relation to the high gas prices they are now paying.

“As per Iranian Government request,” Trump announced Thursday night on Truth Social, “please let this statement serve to represent that I am pausing the period of Energy Plant destruction by 10 Days to Monday, April 6, 2026, at 8 P.M., Eastern Time. Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media, and others, they are going very well.”

Trump initially gave Iran a 48-hour ultimatum to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face bombings against its energy infrastructure. However, after engagement from Iran, with only hours until the deadline, Trump hit the “snooze” button on that alarm for another five days. That five-day pause was scheduled to expire on Saturday, but now Trump has hit the “snooze” button again, giving Iran until April 6, the Monday after Western Christians celebrate Resurrection Sunday.

Media reports reveal little about the substance of the negotiations, except for official statements from the White House or Iranian spokesmen, which do not always agree. (Apparently, information in the Trump administration is much more secure after the departure of suspected leaker Joe Kent.)

However, it seems that Iran has made some concessions regarding its veto of oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran allowed 10 Pakistani-flagged tankers to traverse the Strait, in a gesture Trump said was a gift meant to show the regime’s seriousness about negotiations. The Iranian regime has also agreed to “facilitate and expedite” humanitarian aid through the Strait, “at the U.N.’s request.”

Notably, Iran also turned back two Chinese container vessels as they attempted to pass through. Iran had allowed Chinese vessels to previously pass unmolested (as its Yemeni proxies the Houthis also have done in the Red Sea), and it officially claims to allow free passage to any “non-hostile” ships. Despite Iran’s defense pact with China, signed in January, it appears that Chinese ships are no longer granted free passage. Whether this is a consequence of the Trump administration’s negotiations is not known.

What is known is that Western nations remain highly concerned about Iran’s pretensions to exercise unilateral, sovereign control over the international waterway through which 20% of the world’s oil supply travels to global markets. A proposal brought before the Iranian parliament would claim the right to collect tolls and taxes on international shipping.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called this Iranian scheme “illegal” and “dangerous to the world,” and argued that preventing Iran from carrying it out would be the most immediate challenge after the fighting ends. However, Rubio urged countries with a more direct stake in Gulf commerce to play a larger role. “The United States is prepared to be a part of that plan,” he said. “We don’t have to lead that plan.” The United Kingdom appears poised to lead a multinational coalition to ensure freedom of navigation.

While diplomats are moving pieces across the chessboard, however, it remains an active warzone, subject to bombing at any minute. Sirens sounded across southern Israel again after an Iranian missile launch, warning civilians to take shelter from the attacks that have intentionally targeted civilians and stressed even Israel’s missile defense capabilities. Since the beginning of the war on February 28, Israeli sirens have blasted a warning of incoming attack some 78,109 times.

In response to these ongoing attacks, Israel said it conducted “wide-scale” attacks overnight against Iran’s defense-industrial base and nuclear sites. The IDF bombed Iran’s only “yellowcake production plant,” which extracts uranium from uranium ore. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also complained that Israel hit two steel factories.

Araghchi vowed that Iran would exact a “HEAVY price for Israeli crimes.” The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned employees to evacuate industrial sites in the Middle East “that have American shareholders as well as heavy industries allied with the Zionist regime” — not that factory workers would even know or care if their employer had American shareholders.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared that Israel would also ramp up strikes on Iran in the coming days, in response to Iran’s ongoing missile strikes, even with its much-reduced capabilities.

However, the Iranian government is making moves that wreak of desperation. On Thursday, it lowered the minimum age for military service (in support roles) to the tender age of 12, suggesting it has reached such a desperate manpower shortage that it will now throw even beardless children into harm’s way. On that score, the Iranian regime is now imitating its terrorist proxies by embedding the remnants of its regime in civilian areas, effectively using its own people as human shields against airstrikes.

No wonder the populace is participating in nightly rooftop chants against a regime that cares so little for their safety.

Unfortunately, Americans have a far sourer attitude toward the war against the Iranian regime than the Iranian people. The latest AP-NORC poll finds 59% of Americans believe the U.S. has gone too far in Iran, a sentiment likely informed by the fact that 45% of Americans are “extremely” or “very” concerned about the price of gas.

“I wish he [President Trump] had prepared the American public for it well in advance,” said former U.S. Ambassador John Bolton on “This Week on Capitol Hill,” “to make what I think is the very compelling case that American national security is gravely endangered by the regime and its capabilities, the nuclear threat, the terrorist threat, and now, as we can see all too well, the threat of closing the Strait of Hormuz.”

Such negative polling must have an effect on the Trump administration’s willingness to prolong the war. Rubio insisted Friday that “this is not going to be a prolonged conflict,” although he reportedly told G7 counterparts in France that the war may last another two to four weeks. The administration cannot legally extend the use of force past the end of April without Congressional approval.

In light of these facts, the Pentagon is looking to move another 10,000 troops to the Middle East, on top of 4,500 Marines and 2,500 paratroopers it already mobilized. Such forces would be used for a possible “final blow” against the regime. However, Rubio expressed confidence that the U.S. could achieve its objectives apart from this blow. “We are ahead of schedule on most of them, and we can achieve them without any ground troops,” he said.

What are the objectives, and how will the Trump administration satisfy them? How are negotiations with Iran actually going? The Trump administration may know, by they aren’t sharing them yet.