Trump Says Iran’s President Wants a Cease-Fire

President Donald Trump said in an April 1 Truth Social post that Iran’s president wants a cease-fire, ahead of the U.S. president’s scheduled address to the American people.

“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 on his social media platform.

“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!!!”

The U.S. president made the announcement after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a March 31 post on X that Trump would provide “an important update” about the ongoing Iran war at 9 p.m. EDT on April 1.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei called the U.S. president’s claim that Tehran was seeking a cease-fire “false and baseless,” according to a report on Iranian state television.

Separately, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a statement saying that the Strait of Hormuz “is firmly and decisively under the control” of its forces.

The Epoch Times has contacted the Iranian government for comment.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera that Tehran is ready to continue fighting in the war for at least another six months, according to an April 1 statement from the Tasnim News Agency, which has links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Araghchi also denied holding direct negotiations with the United States but said indirect communications had been held through intermediaries, along with some direct outreach from the U.S. side. He told Al Jazeera on March 31 that he had received some direct messages from U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff but that this does not amount to negotiations.

Iranian leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who was appointed after his father was killed in an airstrike in the opening salvo of the war on Feb. 28, also said on April 1 that Iran will continue to support anti-Israeli forces in the Middle East.

Delivered, like others since he was named Iran’s new leader, in a statement read on air by a state television anchor, the ayatollah said in comments from a letter to the Iranian-backed Lebanese terror group Hezbollah that Iran would continue in the path of his late father “to support the resistance against the Zionist-American enemy.”

Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen since the start of the war, and U.S. and Israeli officials believe that he is in hiding and may be wounded.

‘Finish Line’ in Sight

On March 31, Trump said U.S. combat operations against Iran could be concluded in a few weeks.

“I would say that within two weeks, maybe two weeks, maybe three,” he said during a White House press conference.

Trump said that while there is a possibility of reaching a deal with Tehran, the operation could still end without one.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has echoed the president’s remarks, saying on March 31 that the United States could see the “finish line” in its military operation.

“We can see the finish line. It’s not today, it’s not tomorrow, but it is coming,” Rubio told Fox News’ “Hannity.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.