(AFP) – Donald Trump said Wednesday that Iran’s president had asked for a ceasefire but insisted that the Islamic republic must first reopen the Strait of Hormuz, ahead of a national address expected to touch on the state of the war. Tehran denied that President Masoud Pezeshkian had sought a truce with Washington, and announced on Wednesday evening another barrage of missile and drone attacks targeting Israel and US bases in the Gulf.
The United States will consider a ceasefire “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!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The post came ahead of his 9:00 pm (0100 GMT Thursday) televised address, his first since US-Israeli strikes on February 28 sparked the war and a global energy crisis. Tehran has said there are no ongoing negotiations to end the war, and AFP journalists reported massive explosions in the Iranian capital Wednesday.
Trump’s tone has see-sawed between combative and conciliatory since the war began. On Tuesday, he said the month-long conflict could be over in “two weeks, maybe three.” Pezeshkian had previously said Iran had the “necessary will” for a ceasefire, but only if its foes guaranteed hostilities would not resume. Ahead of Trump’s address, Iran’s president asked the people of the United States if the conflict was truly putting “America First,” accusing Washington of war crimes and being influenced by Israel.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards vowed Wednesday to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed to the country’s “enemies.” One-fifth of global oil normally passes through the narrow strait, and its effective closure has sent energy prices soaring. The Guards also confirmed they hit an oil tanker in the Gulf that they said belonged to Israel. A British maritime security agency said the vessel was struck off Qatar, reporting damage but no casualties.
Iran’s military said its latest missiles targeted Israeli cities including Tel Aviv and Eilat as well as US military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait. An AFP journalist reported huge explosions in Tehran on Wednesday afternoon and earlier strikes near the former US embassy. Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen publicly since his father was killed in an airstrike on the war’s first day, said “the cruel and ruthless American and Zionist enemy knows no human, moral or vital limits.”
Thousands of Iranians gathered in Tehran for the funeral of the Guards’ naval commander, killed in an Israeli airstrike. “We will resist until the end,” said Moussa Nowruzi, a 57-year-old mourner. Iranian media reported that former Iranian foreign minister Kamal Kharazi was seriously wounded in a strike that also killed his wife. Iranian media also reported Wednesday that a passenger airport in Isfahan province and steel complexes in other parts of the country had been damaged in strikes.
The Israeli military confirmed it struck Tehran, while emergency services said an Iranian missile attack on Wednesday morning wounded 14 people, including an 11-year-old girl. As Israel prepared for Passover, which began at sunset Wednesday, air-raid sirens warning of incoming missiles sounded repeatedly in the Tel Aviv area. In Lebanon, seven people were killed in strikes around south Beirut, the health ministry said Wednesday, with the Israeli military saying it had struck a senior Hezbollah commander. AFP correspondents at the scene saw a blackened, debris-strewn street. Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli attacks had killed more than 1,300 people in the country since war erupted between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah on March 2.
Across the Gulf, strikes in Kuwait caused a large fire at its international airport, Bahrain reported a fire at a business facility, and Saudi Arabia said several drones were intercepted. A Bangladeshi national was killed by falling shrapnel from an intercepted drone in the United Arab Emirates. “Every day, we hear the sound of drones,” said Waad Abdulrazaq, a 31-year-old truck driver near Iraq’s Erbil international airport. “We hear them in the morning, and we hear them at night. We can no longer sleep or live in peace.”
Optimism sparked by Trump’s comments on the timeline for the end of the war pushed oil prices down Wednesday, and stock markets rallied in Europe, Asia, and the US. But Iran’s chokehold on Hormuz, through which Gulf oil and gas exports reach global markets, has sent energy prices soaring and unleashed global economic turmoil. Average US gasoline prices topped $4 a gallon for the first time in four years, European inflation spiked and governments began unveiling support measures. “The additional diesel cost for me this month is €15,000, and we’re not managing to pass all of that on,” said Nicolas Barthes, a driver at a fuel price protest in the French city of Toulouse.
burs-arp/js – AFP teams in Washington, Tehran, Jerusalem, Beirut, Dubai, and Sanaa.
© 2024 AFP
