April 13, 2026

Last Tuesday, Washington and Tehran agreed, through Pakistan’s mediation, to stop fighting for two weeks. The term used to define the “agreement” was “ceasefire,” often accompanied by the adjective “temporary.” Another word that goes a step beyond “ceasefire” is “armistice,” which refers to a formal agreement between two countries at war to stop fighting for a specific time to negotiate peace. Definitely, the parties in this Middle East war are far from that point.