Back from the brink: The Iran ceasefire
The Global Story
BBC
3.8 • 663 Ratings
🗓️ 8 April 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Iran and the US have agreed to a conditional two-week ceasefire.
Donald Trump says the US has “met and exceeded all military objectives”, while Iran says the ceasefire is a “humiliating retreat” for Washington. So what has actually been agreed, and is this ceasefire likely to pave the way for an ending to the war?
We speak to Jane Corbin from the BBC’s Panorama, who has reported from the world's major conflict zones for three decades.
Producers: Cat Farnsworth, Sam Chantarasak and Aron Keller
Executive producer: James Shield
Studio manager: Mike Regaard
Senior news editor: China Collins
Photo:Iranians wave the country's flag following the announcement of a two-week ceasefire. Credit: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA/Shutterstock
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | From the BBC, this is the global story, and I'm Tristan Redmond in London. |
| 0:11.4 | As we record this, it's 9am on Wednesday here in London, 4 a.m. in Washington, D.C. |
| 0:19.1 | Donald Trump made a last-minute announcement last night, which means this is |
| 0:24.7 | something of a breaking news, rough and ready episode from us. And to talk through that announcement |
| 0:31.3 | of a conditional two-week ceasefire in the U-Israeli conflict with Iran. |
| 0:38.4 | I'm joined by Jane Corbyn from Panorama, |
| 0:42.1 | which is the BBC's flagship investigative program. |
| 0:46.1 | And Jane won't mind me saying that Jane has been reporting on Iran |
| 0:49.3 | since I was quite literally in short trousers. |
| 0:52.4 | So we are in very good hands with Jane. |
| 0:55.3 | Welcome, Jane. |
| 0:56.0 | Thank you, Tristan. |
| 0:56.9 | Great to have you here with us. |
| 0:58.8 | Let's start off with the ceasefire |
| 1:00.9 | and then we can go back to the events that preceded it. |
| 1:03.9 | What do we know? |
| 1:05.2 | Well, we were all waiting, weren't we, with bated breath? |
| 1:08.0 | The world was waiting late last night. |
| 1:13.3 | For the 1am in the UK, |
| 1:17.7 | a 8pm Eastern Standard Time deadline that Donald Trump had set. |
| 1:23.6 | And then about an hour, 90 minutes an hour before we began to get the rumour that, you know, |
... |
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