In the meantime, President Donald Trump said strikes against Iran will continue “very hard for the next two to three weeks.”
When the conflict is complete the Straight of Hormuz will open on its own, and gas prices will fall rapidly, Trump predicted.
The president paid tribute to 13 Americans who have died in the conflict and said the U.S. needs to complete its war objectives on their behalf. The U.S. has crippled Iran’s military, crushed its ability to support radical proxy militias and denied its ability to produce nuclear weapons.
“We will finish it very fast. We’re getting very close,” he said.
If Iran’s leadership refuses to make a deal the U.S. will decimate Iran’s entire energy and oil infrastructure, Trump said.
Trump said regime change was never among the U.S. objectives “but regime change has occurred because of the deaths of all their leaders. The new group is less radical and more reasonable.”
Trump blasted the Iranian nuclear deal negotiated by former President Barack Obama, saying had he not removed the U.S. from the deal Iran would have most certainly gained nuclear weapons.
“And they would have used them. It would have been a different world. There would be no Israel, no Middle East right now had I not terminated that terrible deal,” he said.
Trump reiterated that diplomacy was his first preference for an Iranian solution.
“Everyone for years has said Iran cannot have nuclear weapons, but those are just words if not willing to take action when time comes,” he said.
Though he’s communicated frequently through his social media platform, Truth Social, it was the president’s first primetime speech since the U.S. and Israel began strikes against Iran four weeks ago.
The address came two hours after Trump posted a video message wishing a “very happy Passover” to Jews celebrating in America, Israel and throughout the world.
“This week we recall this ancient proof of God’s faithfulness and are reminded that with true faith, eternal hope and the power of prayer, nothing can stop the people of God,” Trump said.
Wednesday morning Trump posted “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!”
It’s unclear exactly who Trump was referencing in the post.
Iran has a president in title -- Masoud Pezeshkian – who has held the position since 2024. The real power in the Islamic government rests with new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, named days after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed minutes into the U.S.-Israeli strikes. It’s unknown if Mojtaba Khamenei is still alive.
Pezeshkian denied Trump’s claims in a letter posted to X in the afternoon.
