President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed that he’d rejected a request for a ceasefire from Iran’s president as he threatened to bomb the country “back to the Stone Ages” if Tehran does not allow ships to resume passing freely through the Strait of Hormuz.
Writing on Truth Social, Trump said “Iran’s New Regime President” — who he described as “much less Radicalized and far more intelligent than his predecessors” — had asked for a “ceasefire” from the U.S.
“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 added.
The identity of the new Iranian leader to whom Trump was referring was not entirely clear. Iran’s current president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has served in that role since 2024 and Tehran has denied reports that he has been killed in the joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes that began over a month ago.
While Trump has frequently claimed to be in contact with unidentified Iranian leaders in recent days, Tehran has denied engaging in negotiations with Washington. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that there have been some indirect messages exchanged through third-country intermediaries and said he continues to hear from Trump’s roving peace envoy, Steve Witkoff.
But Araghchi strongly denied that those contacts represent “negotiations” of any kind.
“I receive messages from [US special envoy Steve] Witkoff directly, as before, and this does not mean that we are in negotiations,” he said.
“There is no truth to the claim of negotiations with any party in Iran. All messages are conveyed through the Foreign Ministry or received by it, and there are communications between security agencies.”
The Iranian official also said the “trust level is at zero” between Washington and Tehran after two rounds of diplomacy with Witkoff over the last year, each of which ended with U.S. airstrikes on Iranian targets.
“We do not have any faith that negotiations with the US will yield any results … we don’t see honesty,” he added.
Trump’s unverified claim to have received and rejected a call for a ceasefire comes just hours before the U.S. president is due to deliver a primetime address on the war after having failed to rally an international force capable of re-opening and guaranteeing safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
The narrow waterway between Iran and Oman is a key choke point for roughly one fifth of the world’s energy supply. It has become the focal point in the war Trump launched last month ever since Iran began attacking cargo ships in the strait after declaring that it was closed to any maritime traffic associated with the U.S. or Israel.
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