The U.S. and Iran failed to reach a peace deal after 21 hours of negotiations.
President Donald Trump announced "major combat operations" against Iran on Feb. 28, with massive joint U.S.-Israeli strikes targeting military and government sites.
Trump set a deadline for Iran to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face broad strikes on its critical infrastructure. Hours before the deadline expired, Trump said he had agreed to suspend planned bombing for two weeks if Iran agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi then said that "safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible via coordination with Iran's Armed Forces and with due consideration of technical limitations."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he supported the ceasefire with Iran, but that Lebanon -- where intense Israeli strikes continued -- was not covered by the agreement, despite Iranian protests.
Israel will continue to target Hezbollah in Lebanon using "every operational opportunity," Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the Chief of General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Wednesday.
"We will continue striking the Hezbollah terror organization and will utilize every operational opportunity. We will not compromise the security of the residents of northern Israel," Zamir said.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the U.S. is monitoring Iran's enriched uranium and that it being handed over is a "non-negotiable" for the U.S.
"We know exactly what they have, and they know that, and they will either give it to us, which the president has laid out, will give it to us voluntarily ... or if we have to do something else ourselves, like we did in Midnight Hammer or something like that, we reserve that opportunity," Hegseth said.
"What the new Iranian regime knows is they'll never have a nuclear weapon or the capability to get a path to one," Hegseth said.
Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, welcomed the ceasefire agreement but said the U.S. remains ready to continue combat operations "if called upon."
Caine honored the lives of the 13 service members killed in the operation before outlining U.S. achievements in Iran.
When ordering the beginning of the strikes, President Donald Trump set "three distinct military objectives: destroy ballistic missile and drawing drone capabilities, destroy the Iranian Navy and destroy their defense industrial base to ensure that Iran can reconstitute the ability to project power outside their borders."
Caine said the U.S. achieved the objectives.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the U.S. achieved all its objectives in Iran, leaving the regime with no choice but to cut a deal.
"America's military achieved every single objective on plan, on schedule, exactly as laid out from day one," Hegseth said.
Hegseth listed some of the Iranian leaders killed in the war and sites the U.S. destroyed.
"This new regime is out of options and out of time, so they cut a deal," Hegseth said. "We control their fate, not the other way around. That's why they came to the table."
Hegseth claimed Iran can "no longer build missiles, build rockets, build launchers or build UAVs. Their factories have been razed to the ground, set back in historic fashion."
