Arizona lawmakers react with relief and outrage to 2-week Iran ceasefire

Arizona lawmakers reacted with relief and outrage after President Trump announced a 2-week Iran ceasefire ahead of formal negotiations.

BY DAVID IVERSEN

Apr 7, 2026, 7:34 PM Updated: Apr 8, 2026, 12:43 pm

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Watch: BREAKING: U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego says he’s considering running for president on KTAR | 22 mins

PHOENIX — Arizona U.S. Rep. David Schweikert predicted on live radio Tuesday that the United States would step back from the brink with Iran then watched the news break in real time, confirming his theory within seconds.

“My guess is what’s going to happen … is we’re going to agree to another extension and start talking again,” Schweikert told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Outspoken with Bruce & Gaydos, citing texts from his congressional staff.

Congressman David Schweikert told @OutspokenKTAR he hopes the two week ceasefire will provide a chance to get back to normalcy in the region and world economy.
Watch the full interview here: https://t.co/ywwKf3jSQT pic.twitter.com/LgJDYmVjNU

— KTAR News 92.3 (@KTAR923) April 8, 2026

“A couple moments ago I was getting some texts from my staff in DC saying … Pakistan is begging both parties to do a, you know, like a five day extension,” Schweikert said.

Moments later, the news broke that President Donald Trump posted to Truth Social stating he had agreed to suspend bombing Iran for two weeks on the condition that Tehran immediately and completely reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“Was my prediction from 60 seconds ago held up to be correct?” Schweikert asked.

The congressman, who is also running for governor, said he had received a classified briefing earlier Tuesday morning on the diplomatic back channel.

“I was getting a little nervous, realizing I was talking about Pakistan and I didn’t know if that was public information,” he added.

The announced ceasefire came within hours of the deadline

Trump announced the ceasefire less than two hours before an 8 p.m. deadline he had set for Iran to capitulate, after warning earlier Tuesday that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

The president credited Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir with brokering the pause.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said it accepted the two-week ceasefire and would negotiate with the United States in Islamabad beginning Friday, according to the Associated Press.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said passage through the strait would be allowed under Iranian military management for two weeks, though it was not immediately clear whether that meant Iran would fully loosen its chokehold on the waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped during peacetime.

Trump said Iran had presented a 10-point proposal he considers a workable basis on which to negotiate. Even as the ceasefire was announced, missile alerts continued in the United Arab Emirates and Israel early Wednesday.

Since the war began in late February, Trump has repeatedly imposed deadlines linked to threats of escalation, only to extend them at the last moment.

Other lawmakers react to the proposed ceasefire

Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego, a Marine veteran who served in Iraq, struck a cautious but relieved tone in response to the two-week ceasefire announcement Tuesday evening.

“Stopping war is good. I am glad our men and women in uniform will be out of danger,” Gallego wrote on X. “We can criticize why we got into this war, the illegality of it and holding the Trump admin accountable. But right now I am relieved.”

Stopping war is good. I am glad our men and women in uniform will be out of danger. We can criticize why we got into this war, the illegality of it and holding the Trump admin accountable. But right now I am relieved.
— Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) April 8, 2026

Rep. Yassamin Ansari, a Phoenix Democrat and the first Iranian-American to hold elected office in Arizona, issued a statement calling the ceasefire a temporary reprieve but demanding far more sweeping action.

“I am momentarily relieved for the 90 million Iranians who just spent the worst 24 hours of their lives thinking they were about to face nothing short of a nuclear catastrophe, not the regime, but innocent civilians who have nothing to do with their government, and long for freedom,” Ansari said in a news release.

“This doesn’t change anything. Donald Trump threatened genocide and war crimes against Iranians this morning. His statements that ‘a whole civilization will die’ and that he’ll take Iran ‘back to the stone ages’ confirm that he is mentally unstable, unhinged and unfit for office or any position of authority.”

“Whether through impeachment or by invoking the 25th Amendment, it is far past time Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth are removed from office,” she said. “Cabinet officials like JD Vance will be forever tied to this war if they do nothing. We need urgent action for the sake of our national security and the safety and security of the rest of the world.”

Ansari also demanded that House Speaker Mike Johnson immediately call the House back into session to pass a bipartisan War Powers Resolution.

The congresswoman also joined MSNOW to share her thoughts on the ceasefire.

“We don’t know what any of this is about,” Ansari told MSNOW anchor Ayman Mohyeldin. “This is the Trump cycle. He creates a crisis. He then tries to tell the American people he solved the crisis and reverses course.”

Ansari: Donald Trump pretends like he cares about Iranian people. I mean, as you and I well know, he doesn’t care about American people. So of course he does not care about Iranian people. pic.twitter.com/vIIhYX9pnO

— Acyn (@Acyn) April 8, 2026

Ceasefire deal is an ‘off-ramp’ from a ‘dangerous place’

Schweikert said the language Trump used earlier in the day, alluding to the destruction of an entire civilization, crossed a line.

“It gives me the chills because there’s always been a rule. You’d never even allude to such a thing,” he said. “Use of language like this goes way over the top.”

Still, Schweikert said he sees the ceasefire as a credible off-ramp.

“I think this becomes a potentially face-saving way for all parties to unwind this,” he said. “This is a really dangerous place in the world. You prefer not to create another couple generations of hatred. Can we unwind this and go back to creating some type of normality in the world economy?”

Asked whether the two-week suspension could end the war, Schweikert replied: “I pray it will.”

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran since the war began, and more than 1,500 in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

David Iversen

David Iversen is a Phoenix-based journalist and digital content editor. He has covered local politics, national investigations and everything in between for FOX, The New York Times, Business Insider and other outlets. His work includes DuPont-winning… Read more

Comments

New Guy 4 months ago

FACTS:

Obama gave Iran a bunch of Money when the JCPOA was signed. They used that NOT for their people but for Terrorism and making or advancing their missile production.

Below is from DEMOCRATIC Chuck Schumer on his opposition to the JCPOA

"In making my decision, I examined this deal in three parts: nuclear restrictions on Iran in the first ten years, nuclear restrictions on Iran after ten years, and non-nuclear components and consequences of a deal. In each case I have asked: are we better off with the agreement or without it?

In the first ten years of the deal, there are serious weaknesses in the agreement. First, inspections are not “anywhere, anytime”; the 24-day delay before we can inspect is troubling. While inspectors would likely be able to detect radioactive isotopes at a site after 24 days, that delay would enable Iran to escape detection of any illicit building and improving of possible military dimensions (PMD) – the tools that go into building a bomb but don’t emit radioactivity.

Furthermore, even when we detect radioactivity at a site where Iran is illicitly advancing its bomb-making capability, the 24-day delay would hinder our ability to determine precisely what was being done at that site.

Even more troubling is the fact that the U.S. cannot demand inspections unilaterally. By requiring the majority of the 8-member Joint Commission, and assuming that China, Russia, and Iran will not cooperate, inspections would require the votes of all three European members of the P5+1 as well as the EU representative. It is reasonable to fear that, once the Europeans become entangled in lucrative economic relations with Iran, they may well be inclined not to rock the boat by voting to allow inspections."

Iran, for quite a long time, was saying they are not producing longer range missiles. That was a lie when they launched a near 2,000 KM range missile against Diego Garcia.

No one, NO ONE, knows what is going on in these negotiations. I hope for a peaceful outcome, but am prepared that we may have to hit them again and even harder.

New Guy 4 months ago

Have you asked that same question to Obama, Clinton and Biden ?? All three are on record saying they would attack Iran if they developed a nuclear bomb. Well, Biden just said "Don't". Whatever that means. He said the same to Putin and Putin invaded Ukraine ... so who knows what Biden is or was ever thinking.

"Fuel prices through the roof," - glad we are drilling like mad and now have Venezuelan oil coming into our spere of influence. Once the Straight is truly open ... prices have and will continue to go down.

"inflation continues to eat into our daily lives" / "the National Debt increases exponentially." - CUT spending. Any and everywhere to include DoD.

" insurance costs are sky rising" - I thought Obamacare took care of insurance costs???? Maybe you can blame him ??

" ...and destruction to a foreign country that didn't do anything deserving to be attacked by the US and Israel." - that sentence there just shows me how ill informed you are. Iran is the leading sponsor of terror in then world. They have been killing, through their proxies or by their own hands, US Armed Forces going back to Lebanon in the 80's all the way through Iraq. They kill their own people, have an atrocious human rights record and film themselves throwing Gay people off of buildings.

I get it, I understand if you are against this war. I am truly not 100% behind it and if it is worth it, but in the end if we can finally stop Iran getting a nuclear bomb ... it will be well worth it. Also, Iran is no innocent baby as you try to make them be.

Also killed ...

Alireza Tangsiri, Commander of the IRGC Navy
Behnam Rezaei, Head of the IRGC Tehran Province
Jamshid Eshaghi, Chief of Budget and Finance in Armed FOrces General Staff
Mohammad Ali Fathalizadeh, Commander of the Fatehin unit
Majid Khademi, Head of the Intelligence Protection Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Intelligence Organization of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp

Hippocrates Lives 4 months ago

Careful. They’ll start calling you a RINO if his pic doesn’t give you a chubby like it gives them.

Arizona lawmakers react with relief and outrage to 2-week Iran ceasefire

The announced ceasefire came within hours of the deadline

Other lawmakers react to the proposed ceasefire

Ceasefire deal is an ‘off-ramp’ from a ‘dangerous place’

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