Update: Trump Says Iran Ceasefire Only Possible When Hormuz Reopens
Iran’s “New Regime President” has asked the US for a ceasefire, Trump said in a social-media post on Wednesday, possibly referring to comments Masoud Pezeshkian made Tuesday that the Islamic Republic has “the necessary will” to end this war — with certain guarantees.
“We will consider when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear,” Trump said. “Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion.”
Trump’s comments came a day after he suggested he’s keen to exit the conflict sooner rather than later — regardless of a ceasefire with Iran or a deal to open Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for global energy supplies. “We’ll leave because there’s no reason for us to do this,” he told reporters in the White House.
The US leader has vacillated throughout the month-long conflict between threatening a military escalation and saying a deal is imminent. Also on Wednesday, Reuters reported him as saying the US will be out of Iran “pretty quickly.”
Iran ensured Hormuz was closed off to most ships not long after the US and Israel began airstrikes on Feb. 28, and hasn’t offered any terms or timeline for a reopening. The future of the strait will be decided by Iran and Oman, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Wednesday, according to the state-run Press TV.
Araghchi said previously his country has been in direct contact with US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, but told Al Jazeera that “does not mean that we are in negotiations.”
Hormuz won’t be opened based on the “absurd displays of the American president,” state-run IRIB added, citing a statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Meanwhile, Iran fired missiles across the Middle East and Israel and the US kept up their bombardment of the Islamic Republic for a fifth week.
Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates all reported attacks overnight and into Wednesday, while QatarEnergy said a fuel oil tanker was struck in Qatari waters. That incident highlighted the ongoing threat to regional shipping and the month-long effective closure of Hormuz, which has choked off key commodities including fertilizer as well as oil and gas.
Stocks and bonds surged earlier as investors took Trump’s Tuesday comments as a sign the crisis could be nearing an end. Oil prices briefly fell below $100 a barrel for the first time in more than a week, though later pared declines and remain around 40% higher than before the war began.
Trump had suggested the US has accomplished military goals such as preventing Iran from having a nuclear weapon. “We have had a regime change now,” he added, after US and Israeli strikes killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other senior figures. Khamenei was later replaced by his son, Mojtaba.
The war could be over in two or three weeks, Trump said, although he often sets short-term deadlines that are later ignored or replaced. On Monday, he threatened to destroy Iranian energy assets, as well as desalination plants, if a deal isn’t reached to open the Strait of Hormuz.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. head Jamie Dimon said the US needs to permanently remove any threat from Iran. “It’s much more important that this be successfully completed, than what the market does,” he told Fox & Friends on Tuesday. Anything less will likely leave the world economy vulnerable to shocks, he said.
US military assets, including ground troops, continue to be amassed in the region. A third US aircraft carrier strike group left Virginia for the Middle East on Tuesday, according to a US official familiar with the matter.
Araghchi said his country is ready for any confrontation with American forces. He added that Iran had zero trust in Washington and doesn’t expect any talks to produce results.
More than 5,000 people have been killed in the war so far, almost three-quarters of them in Iran, according to government organizations and the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency. Just over 1,300 people have been killed in Lebanon, where Israel is fighting a parallel war with Iran-allied Hezbollah.
On Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced a plan to occupy parts of southern Lebanon and said about 600,000 residents who have been forced to leave the area will not be allowed back until the safety of Israel’s northern communities is assured.
Whether or not the US ends the campaign against Iran, the closure of Hormuz — through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas exports normally flow — remains an unresolved problem.
Trump on Tuesday called on other nations to wrest control of the strait, saying those that rely on energy supplies from the waterway should step up. He’s repeatedly expressed frustration at allies for not joining in the war.
The UAE is one country that would support international efforts to safeguard maritime security in the region, according to an official from the country.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his country will coordinate a diplomatic push to reopen Hormuz as part of a group of 35 nations committed to coming up with a plan. He added that he doesn’t want to be “dragged” into the military conflict.
Trump will address the nation Wednesday night “to provide an important update on Iran,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X.
She did not provide further details. The war has pushed US pump prices above $4 a gallon, which could cause political pain for Trump’s Republican party in what’s already shaping up to be a difficult midterm election year.
The president realizes that the current situation is untenable, according to a person familiar with his thinking who requested anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
Photograph: People sift through rubble following a strike in Tehran, on March 31, 2026; Photo credit: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images