President Donald Trump said the United States “will continue to drive Iran into oblivion” until the Strait of Hormuz is reopened.
Published April 1, 2026
A senior Iranian official has denied claims by US President Donald Trump that Iran’s “new president” is calling for a ceasefire as the US and Israel continue their war against Iran.
Reporting from the Iranian capital on Wednesday, Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem said Iranian officials rejected President Trump’s social media post claiming that “the new president of Iran…just asked the United States for a ceasefire!”
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“Iran denies that it has called for a ceasefire,” Hashem said.
Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform early Wednesday that his administration would consider calling for a ceasefire if the Strait of Hormuz becomes “open, free and transparent.”
“Until then, we will either blow Iran into oblivion or, as the saying goes, return to the Stone Age!!!” he wrote.
Trump’s claims came just hours before he was scheduled to give a speech in Washington, D.C., at 9pm local time (1am Japan time Thursday), delivering what the White House said would be an “important update on Iran.”
The Trump administration is facing increasing pressure over the U.S.-Israel war against Iran amid soaring global energy prices and growing opposition to conflict among Americans.
President Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that prices would “plummet” whenever the United States decides to end a war, which could happen within the next two to three weeks.
But the US leader’s threat on Wednesday to “continue to blow Iran into oblivion” until the Strait of Hormuz is reopened has raised questions about whether the war will end as quickly as President Trump claims.
The strait, a vital Gulf waterway through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies pass, has been effectively closed as a result of the war, raising serious concerns about a global economic downturn.
Mohammad El-Masry, a professor at the Doha Graduate Institute, said in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday that President Trump is “giving people hope in one breath and taking it away in the next.”
“The words he uses are very important. Yesterday he said he wants to bomb Iran back to the Stone Age, and now he is using this strong language so that it (the bombing) is forgotten,” Elmasry told Al Jazeera.
“This is not necessarily encouraging, especially given that Israel and the United States have already attacked hundreds of schools and hospitals and thousands of homes (in Iran).”
“They’re trying to use 2,000-pound (900 kg) bombs to destroy entire city blocks. So this isn’t exactly a careful, precise operation. They’re destroying a lot of civilian infrastructure.”
Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher also said in a report from the White House that President Trump is unlikely to announce an immediate end to the war in a speech Wednesday night.
“(According to sources) he is likely to say the war will last several weeks. I understand that the population is experiencing economic pain… but it’s a short-term pain to get through this,” Fisher said.
