Donald Trump says the US will continue to ‘destroy Iran’ until the Strait of Hormuz is reopened.
Published on 1 April 2026
A senior Iranian official has refuted US President Donald Trump’s claim that Iran’s “new regime president” has called for a ceasefire, as the United States and Israel continue their war on the country.
Reporting from the Iranian capital on Wednesday, Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem said a senior Iranian official had dismissed Trump’s post on social media that claimed, “The president of Iran’s new regime has just asked the United States for a ceasefire!”
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“The Iranians are denying that they have asked for a ceasefire,” Hashem said.
In a post on his Truth social platform, Trump on Wednesday said his administration would consider the alleged ceasefire request when the Strait of Hormuz is “open, free and clear”.
“Until then, we are sending Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Age!!!” He has written.
Trump’s claim comes hours before he is to deliver a speech in Washington DC on Wednesday at 9 pm local time (01:00 GMT on Thursday). The White House said It would be “an important update on Iran”.
The Trump administration has faced increasing pressure over a US-Israeli war on Iran amid rising global energy prices and widespread opposition to the conflict among the American public.
On Monday, Trump told reporters at the White House that whenever the US decides to end the war, prices will “go down” – something he said could happen within the next two to three weeks.
But the US leader’s threat on Wednesday to continue to “destroy Iran” until the Strait of Hormuz is reopened has raised questions about whether the war will end any time soon, as Trump has claimed.
The strait – a vital Gulf waterway through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies transit – has been effectively closed as a result of the war, raising serious concerns about a global economic recession.
Mohammed Elmasri, a professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, said Trump, in his Truth Social post on Wednesday, was “giving people hope in one breath and … taking it away in the next”.
“The language he is using is very significant. Yesterday, he said he wanted to bomb Iran back to the Stone Age, and now he is using this forceful language (about the bombings) to send them into oblivion,” Elmasri told Al Jazeera.
“This is not at all encouraging, especially when you consider the context that Israel and the United States have already hit hundreds of schools and hospitals and thousands of residential homes (in Iran),” he said.
“They’re using 2,000-pound (900 kg) bombs to destroy entire city blocks. So it’s not exactly a meticulous, precise operation. They’re destroying a lot of civilian infrastructure.”
Reporting from the White House, Al Jazeera’s Alan Fischer also said Trump was unlikely to announce an immediate end to the war during his Wednesday evening address.
“(Sources) say he’s more likely to say that while the war will continue for a few weeks, he understands that people are experiencing financial pain… but it’s a short-term pain,” Fisher said.
