Trump Says Ceasefire Only Possible When Hormuz Reopens
US President Donald Trump said he’ll only consider a halt to attacks on Iran when the Strait of Hormuz is reopened, sowing further confusion about how long he’s prepared to continue the war.
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.
People sift through rubble following a strike in Tehran, on March 31. Photographer: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images
The US leader has vacillated throughout the month-long conflict between threatening a military escalation and saying a deal is imminent, often with little changing on the ground. Also on Wednesday, Reuters reported him as saying the US will be out of Iran “pretty quickly.”
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.
