President Donald Trump announced a two-week cessation of hostilities with Iran at 6:32 P.M. on Tuesday, pausing a thirty-eight-day war between the two countries. Earlier on Tuesday morning, Trump had threatened to wipe out the ancient civilization of Persia.

The conflict resulted in thousands of deaths and caused billions of dollars in damage to U.S. military installations, oil-and-gas production facilities, and civilian infrastructure across multiple countries, including Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. The Pentagon spent tens of billions of dollars prosecuting the war, which also disrupted global supply chains and air-traffic routes and depleted hard-to-replace air-defense and munitions stockpiles.

Seven previous presidents — Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden — did not attempt a military conflict with Iran during their respective terms in office.

Despite the ceasefire announcement, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remained far below normal levels in the days that followed. On Wednesday, one day after the cessation of hostilities took effect, four ships passed through the strait. None of them were oil tankers. On Thursday, seven ships transited the waterway, representing about ninety percent less traffic than normal volumes.

One-fifth of the world's oil and gas supply flows through the Strait of Hormuz under normal conditions. Iran asserts the right to charge millions of dollars in tolls to ships that wish to pass through the strait, a claim that has further complicated the resumption of commercial shipping since the ceasefire was declared.

Sultan al-Jaber, head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, said, "The Strait of Hormuz is not open."

The ceasefire covers a two-week period, though the terms governing the cessation of hostilities were not detailed in Trump's Tuesday announcement.