Trump says Iran president requests ceasefire, Tehran says 'false'

Washington—President Donald Trump stated on Wednesday that Iran's president had requested for a ceasefire, but ruled out any truce until the crucial Strait of Hormuz was reopened for energy shipments.

Trump made the remarks ahead of his first national address since US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 ignited a regional war and sparked a global energy crisis. Ahead of his speech, Trump stated that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had requested for a truce. The Hormuz, a narrow strait through which one-fifth of the world's oil normally passes, would remain closed to Iran's enemies, according to the Revolutionary Guards.

Trump's tone has see-sawed between combative and conciliatory since the war began. Late on Tuesday, he stated that the month-long conflict could be over in two weeks, maybe three. Trump made the remarks ahead of a prime-time speech at 900 pm (0100 GMT Thursday).

An AFP journalist reported huge explosions in Tehran on Wednesday afternoon and earlier strikes near the former US embassy, now a symbol of decades of US-Iranian tensions. Israel launched broad strikes and a ground offensive against Lebanon after attacks on March 2 by the Tehran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Iran has also carried out retaliatory attacks on nations in the Gulf it says have been launchpads for strikes. Strikes in Kuwait caused a large fire in fuel tanks at its international airport, Bahrain's interior ministry said a fire broke out at a business facility, and Saudi Arabia said several drones were intercepted. Meanwhile, a drone strike caused a massive fire at the storage facilities of an engine oil firm in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan.

Saudi Arabia's Red Sea city of Jeddah was attacked on Tuesday by what the kingdom described as a new Iranian cruise missile, which was intercepted mid-air. A Bangladeshi national was killed by falling shrapnel from an intercepted drone in the United Arab Emirates.

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