United States President Donald Trump has claimed that Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian reached out to him to request a ceasefire.
While speaking on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday, April 1, Trump praised Pezeshkian as more intelligent and less radicalized than his predecessors.
Trump Says Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian Asked for a Ceasefire
However, Trump said that he won’t agree to stop the fighting until the theocratic regime opens the Strait of Hormuz.
“Iran’s New Regime President, much less Radicalized and far more intelligent than his predecessors, has just asked the United States of America for a Ceasefire,” Trump said.
“We will consider when the Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!”
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President Trump had earlier that U.S. military action in Iran could end in as soon as “two or three weeks,” with or without a deal brokered between the United States and Tehran.
Trump told reporters that the United States has achieved its key goals in the country, primarily limiting Iran’s ability to obtain a nuclear weapon, and is now “finishing the job.”
He said there “could be a deal” between Washington and Tehran before then, but added “it doesn’t matter if they come to the table or not”.
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Meanwhile, Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, said the end of the war was in sight and there are “talks going on”. He told Fox News: “There is the potential for direct meeting at some point. We’re always going to be open for that.”
However, he said that Trump would not allow “fake negotiations to be used as a delay tactic to buy more time”.
Iran Says Any Ceasefire Must Protect National Interests
On his part President Pezeshkian stated that any decision to end the war with the US and Israel must “guarantee the security and interests of the Iranian people.”
“The resistance shown by the army, along with the national unity shown by the Iranian people during the war, are among the most important factors that helped the country overcome the current critical circumstances,” Pezeshkian said during a cabinet meeting, as cited by the state news agency IRNA.
Leaders in Tehran are asking for sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz and a complete end to “aggression” from the U.S. and Israel, among other demands.
“Iran will end the war at a time of its own choosing and only if the conditions it has set are fulfilled. It will not allow Trump to determine the timing of the war’s end,” according to a statement by Iran’s Consulate General in Mumbai posted on the social platform X.
Ultimately, the Iranian response included five “conditions for ending the war”: the acts of “aggression” coming to an end, ensuring the war will not recur, a payment of war damages and reparations, the ending of the war across all fronts involving all resistance groups, and Iranian sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz.
