Iran denies Trump ceasefire claim as Hormuz remains shut

Iran rejected on Wednesday U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that Tehran had asked for a ceasefire, as fighting intensified across the region and the vital Strait of Hormuz remained closed.

Iran's state television, citing the foreign ministry, said Trump’s assertion was “false and baseless.” Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei denied that Iran had requested a truce.

Earlier Wednesday, Trump said Iran had asked for a ceasefire but ruled out any halt in fighting until the Strait of Hormuz was reopened for energy shipments.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian “has just asked the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE!”

“We will consider when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!” he wrote.

The White House said Trump would deliver an “important” national address at 9 p.m. (0100 GMT Thursday), his first prime-time speech since the conflict began. Earlier, he said the war could end in “two weeks, maybe three.”

Tehran has insisted there are no ongoing negotiations. It launched fresh missile strikes Wednesday on Israel and U.S.-allied Gulf nations, as AFP journalists reported massive explosions in the Iranian capital.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the Islamic republic had the “necessary will” for a ceasefire, but only if its adversaries guaranteed hostilities would not resume.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the Strait of Hormuz, through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil normally passes, would remain closed to the country’s “enemies.”

The Guards said they hit an oil tanker in the Gulf that they said belonged to Israel. A British maritime security agency reported the vessel was struck off Qatar, sustaining damage but no casualties.

‘Every day we hear drones’

An AFP journalist in Tehran reported huge explosions Wednesday afternoon and earlier strikes near the former U.S. embassy, a symbol of decades of U.S.-Iran tensions.

Iranian media said steel complexes in central and southwest Iran were hit, causing “significant damage and destruction.”

The Israeli military confirmed it struck Tehran. In Israel, emergency services said an Iranian missile attack wounded 14 people, including an 11-year-old girl.

Israel said its air defenses intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, the third attack by Iran-backed Houthi rebels since they joined the conflict over the weekend.

In Lebanon, seven people were killed in strikes around south Beirut, the health ministry said. The Israeli military said it struck a senior Hezbollah commander.

A Lebanese security source and a Hezbollah source told AFP the strike killed Hezbollah’s top commander for Iraq military affairs.

AFP correspondents described a blackened, debris-strewn street. “Nobody knows what’s happening,” resident Hassan Jalwan said, adding displaced people were sleeping in the open.

Israel launched broad strikes and a ground offensive against Lebanon after attacks on March 2 by the Tehran-backed Hezbollah group.

Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli attacks had killed more than 1,300 people, among thousands reported killed across the region since the war began, mostly in Iran.

A Bangladeshi national was killed in the United Arab Emirates by falling shrapnel from an intercepted drone. Kuwait reported a large fire in fuel tanks at its international airport. Bahrain said a fire broke out at a business facility, and Saudi Arabia said several drones were intercepted.

In Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region, a drone strike caused a massive fire at storage facilities of an engine oil firm.

“Every day, we hear the sound of drones,” truck driver Waad Abdulrazaq said near Erbil’s international airport. “We hear them in the morning, and we hear them at night. We can no longer sleep or live in peace.”

Energy crisis

Oil prices fell Wednesday on optimism sparked by Trump’s timeline for a possible end to the war, and stock markets rallied in Europe and Asia.

But Iran’s blockade of Hormuz has driven energy prices higher. Average U.S. gasoline prices topped $4 a gallon for the first time in four years this week. European inflation spiked as governments unveiled support measures.

“We’re a small outfit,” driver Nicolas Barthes said at a protest in the French city of Toulouse. “The additional diesel cost for me this month is €15,000.”

Britain said it would host a meeting of about 35 countries this week to discuss reopening the strait. French President Emmanuel Macron repeated that France would not take part in the war.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera he still receives messages from U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff but said that did not mean negotiations were underway.

Washington has not disclosed who it is speaking with in Iran.