Tehran7:33 a.m. April 2
Tel Aviv7:03 a.m. April 2
Iran War Live Updates: Trump Claims Military Success but Offers No Clear Timeline to End Fighting
In a 19-minute address from the White House, President Trump said the U.S. would hit Iran “extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” but did not make any revealing announcements.
President Trump asserted the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran was “nearing completion” during a prime-time address on Wednesday, even as he offered no clear path out of the war and committed to bombing the nation “back to the Stone Ages where they belong.”
Mr. Trump did not make any revealing announcements in the speech. Instead, he described the military action against Iran as an overwhelming success and seemingly pleaded for concerned Americans uneasy about its costs and open-ended timeline to “keep this conflict in perspective.”
Mr. Trump ticked through the durations of the United States’ involvement in past conflicts, including the wars in Iraq and Vietnam, for the purpose of reminding Americans that the campaign against Iran had just entered its second month. But as he has done throughout the war, Mr. Trump did not offer a clear exit strategy and issued ambiguous and conflicting statements weaving diplomatic overtures with threats of escalating attacks.
“We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” Mr. Trump said in the 19-minute address. “If there’s no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and properly simultaneously.”
Mr. Trump demanded that Iran negotiate to end the war, just a day after he suggested to reporters in the Oval Office that he did not need Iran to reach a deal to end the conflict.
Mr. Trump framed the opening of the Strait of Hormuz, a major conduit for oil worldwide, as an issue for other nations, even though earlier on Wednesday he said on social media he would not agree to any cease-fire deal unless it opened. Iran has choked off oil shipments through the strait, causing oil and natural gas prices to surge.
“We will be helpful, but they should take the lead in protecting the oil that they so desperately depend on,” he said of other nations.
Mr. Trump also said that Iran’s “ability to launch missiles and drones is dramatically curtailed.” The U.S. and Israeli militaries have destroyed many of Iran’s ballistic missiles and launchers in airstrikes. But a large number are undamaged, and Iran continues to fire missiles in the region.
The speech at times resembled the kind of sober address Americans might expect to see at the start of a war, or even before it, when a president makes a case for why the time for military action is necessary. Mr. Trump did not travel the country delivering extensive speeches laying out that justification before the war, and the speech Wednesday night was his first prime-time address from the White House since the attacks on Iran began on Feb. 28.
Mr. Trump argued that Iran was on the cusp of building a weapon. That is disputed: Iran certainly could have produced bomb-grade nuclear fuel within days or weeks. But it would take months or more than a year to fashion that fuel into a nuclear weapon, American intelligence agencies concluded.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
Diplomatic freeze: While Mr. Trump insisted that talks were continuing with Iran, multiple U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed in recent days that Tehran is not currently willing to engage in substantial negotiations. The assessments say the Iranian government believes it is in a strong position in the war and does not have to accede to America’s diplomatic demands, officials said. Read more ›
War objectives: Mr. Trump laid out five goals for the war on Feb. 28, just hours after joining with Israel to carry out the first strikes. While those attacks have done significant damage to Iran’s military capabilities, it still fires missiles, has nuclear material and coordinates with militias in the region. Read more ›
Strait of Hormuz: Earlier Wednesday, an Iranian official emphasized that the United States would not regain access to the strait, saying in a social media post: “The Strait of Hormuz will certainly reopen, but not for you.”
Death tolls: The Human Rights Activists News Agency said at least 1,606 civilians had been killed, including 244 children, in Iran since the war began. Lebanon’s health ministry said that more than 1,318 Lebanese had been killed as of Wednesday, with more than 3,935 others wounded, since the latest fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began. In Iran’s attacks across the Middle East, at least 50 people have been killed in Gulf nations. In Israel, at least 17 had been killed as of Friday. The American death toll stands at 13 service members, with hundreds of others wounded.
More than a month into the war in Iran, President Trump gave a prime-time address to the nation on Wednesday to make the case for why he believes the conflict is necessary.
In a 19-minute speech from the White House, Mr. Trump said Iran’s missiles and drone systems have been “dramatically curtailed and their weapons factories and rocket launches are being blown to pieces.”
Although the U.S. and Israeli militaries have destroyed many of Iran’s ballistic missiles and launchers in airstrikes, Iran continues to fire missiles in the region.
Still, Mr. Trump described the military action as a major success and called on Americans, who are uneasy about its costs, to keep things in perspective. He estimated that the war should wind down within three weeks.
Trump did not define a clear path out.
Mr. Trump oscillated between endorsing negotiations to end the war and promising an escalation of violence.
“We are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly,” he said. “We are going to hit them extremely hard. Over the next two to three weeks, we’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing.”
Iran has said there are no direct talks with the United States, and U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that the Iranians are willing to keep channels of communication open but not to make concessions at this point.
He urged Americans to keep the war in perspective.
Mr. Trump seemed sensitive to criticism that he has bogged the United States down in a protracted conflict that is hurting the American economy and alienating voters who want a focus on domestic issues.
He listed the lengths of World War I, World War II, Vietnam, and the Korean and Iraq wars to argue that his military campaign has been far shorter than past wars.
“It’s very important that we keep this conflict in perspective,” Mr. Trump said.
He did not explicitly empathize with the economic pain Americans are feeling, but Mr. Trump maintained that the war was worth it to eliminate what he argued was the threat from Iran.
“This is a true investment in your children and your grandchildren’s future,” he said.
He appeared to rule out a raid to capture Iran’s enriched uranium.
Mr. Trump has been weighing whether to authorize a mission to extract the highly enriched uranium that is secured under Iran’s nuclear site at Isfahan.
But on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said that Iran’s nuclear sites have been hit so hard that “it would take months to get near the nuclear dust.” He said the United States has satellites monitoring the sites and would attack if Iran made a move to retrieve the material.
It’s possible that Mr. Trump is deceiving Iran after weeks of telegraphing his interest in securing the material. If not, he will have left the nuclear material exactly where it was before the war started — deep underground, but theoretically within Iran’s reach — leaving open the question of what the conflict would have accomplished on that front.
He said the Strait of Hormuz is not America’s problem.
The president repeated his demands that the countries that import oil from the Persian Gulf via the strait take the lead in forcing Iran to reopen it.
He asserted that “we don’t need” the oil that goes through the artery off Iran’s southern coast. It’s true that the United States imports very little oil from the Gulf, but Mr. Trump’s stance ignores the economic reality that oil prices are set globally and that supply disruptions in the Middle East will filter through to the United States.
Less oil on global markets means higher gas prices for Americans. Other key commodities, like fertilizers, are also exported via the Strait of Hormuz, meaning that if Iran chokes off most shipping, the greater the risk of inflation in food prices and other goods.
He hailed the Venezuela operation as a model for Iran, again.
In the opening minutes of his speech, Mr. Trump bragged about the success of the U.S. mission to capture the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro.
Aides say Mr. Trump sees that operation as a model for what he wants to accomplish in Iran. But the two situations are very different. In Venezuela, U.S. forces quickly dropped into Caracas and left with Mr. Maduro in custody. There were no U.S. military deaths.
“That hit was quick, lethal, violent and respected by everyone all over the world,” Mr. Trump said Wednesday night. He added that the United States and Venezuela were “joint venture partners” and “getting along incredibly well.”
In Iran, the war so far has left a hostile regime in place and more than a dozen U.S. troops have been killed and hundreds have been injured.
Scenes From the Mideast
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- David Guttenfelder/The New York Times
- Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
- Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times
- Diego Ibarra Sanchez for The New York Times
- Amit Elkayam for The New York Times
- Reuters
- Agence France-Presse
- Anadolu Agency, via Getty Images
The price of oil jumped and stocks sank after President Trump, in an address from the White House, offered no timeline to end the war on Iran even after he said the conflict was “nearing completion.”
Mr. Trump, in remarks that lasted 19 minutes, said U.S. forces would hit Iran “extremely hard over the next two to three weeks.”
Oil prices jump.
The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, was about $106 a barrel, up almost 5 percent. On Tuesday, it settled at $101.16.
West Texas Intermediate crude, the U.S. benchmark, was around $104 a barrel, up 4 percent. It ended Tuesday at $100.12.
Investors and analysts have remained focused on the Strait of Hormuz since the fighting began over a month ago. The narrow waterway between Iran and Oman is a vital trading route for oil and natural gas that normally carries as much as one-fifth of the world’s oil supply. Shipping traffic exiting the Persian Gulf through the strait has been effectively halted since the war began.
Price of Brent Crude Oil
Stocks fall.
Stocks in Asia, where countries import vast quantities of oil and gas, were broadly lower on Wednesday, reversing the prior day’s rally. The Nikkei 225 in Japan was down 1.5 percent. Stocks in South Korea were the worst performers, falling 2.6 percent.
Futures on the S&P 500 pointed to a 1 percent decline when stocks resume trading in the United States on Thursday. The S&P 500 rose 0.7 percent on Wednesday.
Nikkei
Gasoline prices rose.
U.S. gasoline prices rose again on Wednesday, jumping to a national average of $4.06 a gallon, according to the AAA motor club. The cost for drivers has risen by 36 percent since the war began.
Gas prices don’t move in lock step with crude, usually trailing increases or drops by a few days.
Diesel prices have increased even more quickly, rising to $5.49 on Wednesday, up 46 percent since the start of the war.
Markets across Asia were down in twisty morning trading. Stocks in South Korea, which like most Asian countries is highly dependent on Middle East energy imports, were down 3 percent, the worst in the region. In the U.S., S&P 500 stock futures pointed to a decline of 0.8 percent when trading resumes.
A report Wednesday by Oxford Economics, a research firm, estimated that the war has resulted in a 10 percent shortfall between global oil supply and demand. A prolonged war could cause in “widespread rationing,” greater use of coal and disruptions to supply chains in emerging economies.
One threat we didn’t hear Trump repeat tonight: His warning he could pull out of NATO. The president told a British newspaper in an interview published this morning that he could leave the military alliance over his frustration with Europe’s lack of support for the Iran war, prompting criticism even from some Republicans.
The price of oil was down when Trump started speaking and had gone up by the time he finished. The global benchmark is now up more than 3 percent. The initial reaction of stock markets in Asia was muted.
Remarkably, Trump barely acknowledged the economic consequences of his war, as Americans around the country continue to feel the sting of high gas prices. On the few occasions that Trump did touch on those issues, he largely brushed off the concerns as temporary and argued that the economy remained strong.
Nevertheless, economists have offered an increasingly dire set of predictions about the costs of the war. Some have revised down growth estimates, and revised up their projections for inflation and unemployment. And a handful have raised their odds that the U.S. could slip into recession if the war were to worsen considerably, driving oil prices even higher.
Trump throughout the war has issued contradictory visions, both championing the military action against Iran and appeasing parts of his base concerned about the economic fallout. He once again issued a double message tonight, detailing the actions of the military while also setting the stage for pulling out of Iran in a matter of weeks.
Trump has wrapped up his speech, and he made no new announcements about the conflict. He largely repeated the same messages he has in recent public appearances. That will certainly disappoint some Republican allies, as well as investors, who were hoping the president would announce how he planned to end the war.
Trump says that nuclear sites have been hit again in recent days and “it would take months to get near the nuclear dust.” This seems to repeat his comments earlier in the day that he no longer cares about the near-bomb-grade nuclear material, because it is under rubble.
Perhaps this is deception, and he will attempt to seize that cache. If not, he will have left the nuclear material exactly where it was before the war started — underground, and within Iran’s reach.
Importantly, a continued closure in the Strait of Hormuz could constrain the global oil supply, driving up costs everywhere. In fact, the president even took steps to lift sanctions on Iranian oil just to ease some of that shock.
Trump repeats his demand that Iran negotiate an end to the war, or risk an escalation in the U.S. attacks. Intelligence agencies have said that Iran is not currently ready to make major concessions, because Tehran has assessed it has a stronger position than it anticipated.
Trump asserted that the tempo of U.S. bombing would not slow down, even as he suggested that the war could soon be over. “We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” Trump said. “We’re going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong.”
The president said that “if no deal is made,” the United States would hit Iran’s electric grid. Because the grid serves civilians, it would almost certainly be a violation of the Geneva Conventions, legal experts say.
Trump is once again framing the Strait of Hormuz as an issue for other allied nations. Earlier today Trump said on social media that he would consider making a cease-fire deal with Iran only when it opened the strait. Iran has choked off oil shipments in the strait, causing gas prices to surge around the globe.
Trump is projecting an air of American dominance in the conflict, and said that Iran’s “ability to launch missiles and drones is dramatically curtailed.” But Iran is still very much shooting back. Twelve U.S. troops were injured in a combined Iranian missile and drone attack last week, one of the most serious breaches of American air defenses in the war thus far.
Trump argued that Iran was right on the cusp of building a weapon. That is disputed: Iran certainly could have produced bomb-grade nuclear fuel within days or weeks. But it would take months or more than a year to fashion that fuel into a nuclear weapon, American intelligence agencies concluded.
Trump seems to have abandoned the argument he made during the State of the Union, four days before the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran, that Iran was on the cusp of having a ballistic missile that could reach the United States. American intelligence agencies do not believe this is the case.
An important bit of context tonight: Trump’s oft-repeated claim — that energy prices will fall rapidly once the war ends — is not one widely shared by economists and industry executives. Many say it could be weeks or longer before those prices normalize even when hostilities conclude. (The spike in energy prices also threatens to slow down economic growth and push up prices for groceries and other goods.)
Hours before he was set to address the nation about the war in the Middle East, President Trump said that he no longer cared about Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium because it was buried deep underground.
“That is so far underground, I don’t care about that,” he said in a Reuters interview, referring to near-bomb-grade uranium that international inspectors say could be used to produce nuclear weapons. The comment undercut one of his primary justifications of the war, which was preventing Tehran from developing those weapons.
The shifting message came as Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, appealed directly to the American people in a letter. His message was at times defiant or patronizing, and at others conciliatory. In it, he suggested the possibility of diplomacy, saying that “the path of confrontation is more costly and futile than ever before.”
It was unclear if the message reflected the views of Iran’s leadership as a whole. U.S. intelligence agencies in recent days have assessed that the Iranian government remains skeptical of negotiations.
Here is what else happened:
Iran: Formidable strikes rocked Tehran early Wednesday morning, damaging buildings and sending residents seeking cover. Iranian media reported an attack on an airport in Isfahan province, and strikes that wounded seven people on Hengam Island in the Strait of Hormuz.
Kamal Kharazi, a former Iranian foreign minister who officials said was helping facilitate a potential meeting between Vice President JD Vance and Iranian authorities, was injured in an attack on a residential building, according to a semiofficial Iranian news outlet.
Israel: Iran launched what its state-aligned media called one of the largest attacks on Israel yet, causing extensive damage to several cities, according to Israel’s rescue services. At least 14 people were wounded after missile strikes to central Israel. The attacks came as Israelis prepared for Passover.
Lebanon: Israeli strikes in Beirut killed at least seven people and wounded 24 others early Wednesday, according to Lebanon’s national news agency. Israel also continued striking southern Lebanon, a day after outlining plans to occupy and control a stretch of land and demolish entire towns. Israel on Wednesday announced that it had killed one of Hezbollah’s senior commanders, Yusuf Ismail Hashem, during a Tuesday attack on Beirut.
Strait of Hormuz: After Mr. Trump declared the war had largely achieved its goals, Ebrahim Azizi, head of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security Commission, responded in a post on social media, saying that “The Strait of Hormuz will certainly reopen, but not for you.” Mr. Trump, after previously stating that reopening the waterway was an issue for other countries to handle, wrote Wednesday that he would not consider a deal until the Strait was “open, free, and clear.”
United States: Even as Mr. Trump said he wanted the war to end in two to three weeks, the Pentagon moved to increase capabilities in the region, more than doubling the number of A-10 attack planes in the Middle East by bringing in 18 more aircraft to join around a dozen already there. U.S. Central Command said American forces had struck more than 12,300 targets inside Iran since the war began, though it offered few details about the attacks.
Gulf states: Three cruise missiles were launched at Qatar, with one striking an oil tanker in Qatari waters, though no one was injured. In the United Arab Emirates, falling debris from a drone interception killed a Bangladeshi national in Fujairah. The Houthis in Yemen said they had also launched a ballistic missile at Israel.
Global economy: Oil prices fell and stocks climbed on Wednesday as Mr. Trump said the United States was winding down its war with Iran “very soon.” Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, is now just above $100 a barrel, down from $120 a barrel in recent days. However, international concerns lingered. Australia’s prime minister made a national address urging people not to hoard fuel and take public transportation if possible.
In a prime-time address to the nation on Wednesday evening, President Trump is expected to describe the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran as a major success and reiterate his suggestion that the war could end in two to three weeks.
Mr. Trump’s address from the White House comes as he has offered conflicting messages this week about his objectives for the war, which has caused economic fallout across the globe and hundreds of deaths in Iran and other countries in the region.
With the war in its fifth week, Mr. Trump and his aides have increasingly suggested he sees an opening for claiming to have achieved the military objectives in Iran and pulling out of the conflict. Mr. Trump’s inclination to wind down the offensive comes as Iran has indicated it is not currently willing to engage in serious negotiations, believing Mr. Trump to be untrustworthy, and that it is in a strong position in the war, according to U.S. officials.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr. Trump told Reuters he no longer cared about the enriched uranium that Tehran still possessed because it was buried deep underground. That statement was sharply at odds with his argument that a main goal of the war was to prevent Iran from being able to produce an atomic bomb.
The contradictions have not ended there.
Mr. Trump wrote on social media Wednesday that he would not consider a cease-fire until the Strait of Hormuz was open, a day after he said that the U.S. military campaign would be over “very soon” and that Iran’s closure of the strait was for other countries to resolve.
Mr. Trump has also ramped up his attacks in recent days on NATO allies over a lack of support for the war. In an interview with The Telegraph, Mr. Trump said he was considering pulling the United States’ membership from the alliance.
Before Mr. Trump’s address, Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, issued his own message to the American people. “Continuing along the path of confrontation is more costly and futile than ever before,” he said in a letter that was at times defiant, patronizing or conciliatory.
But even as Mr. Trump has projected a winding down of the war, he has continued to surge U.S. forces to the region.
While Mr. Trump has boasted that the military has hit more than 12,000 targets, Iran still has near-bomb-grade nuclear material at the Isfahan site. The president is weighing whether to approve a risky operation to seize or destroy the material. He has also floated the idea of invading or attacking Kharg Island, the heart of Iran’s oil export capacity in the Persian Gulf. Iran has choked off oil shipments in the Strait of Hormuz, prompting gas prices to surge around the globe.
Mr. Trump has yet to fully achieve many of the goals he set out when he entered the conflict, including ousting the theocratic government in Iran and ensuring that it could never achieve a nuclear weapon. Nor has he resolved problems created by the war, including the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the increased regional instability caused by Iran’s missile attacks on neighboring countries.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump said the United States had already accomplished “regime change,” even though a theocratic leadership that is authoritarian and anti-American remains in place.
“We’ve knocked out one regime; then we knocked out the second regime,” Mr. Trump said. “Now we have a group of people that are very different. They are much more reasonable, I think, much less radicalized. We have had regime change.”
President Trump laid out his aims for the Iran war in an eight-minute video that he released on Feb. 28 just hours after joining with Israel to carry out the first strikes. “Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime,” he said.
Here is an assessment of where the war stands now based on the goals he described in that video.
1. “We’re going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally again obliterated.”
The U.S. and Israeli militaries have destroyed many of Iran’s ballistic missiles and launchers in airstrikes. But a large number are undamaged, and Iran continues to fire missiles in the region. In addition, it is using attack drones. The United States and Israel have decimated many Iranian factories that produce missiles.
2. “We’re going to annihilate their navy.”
The two militaries have destroyed much of Iran’s navy. A notable attack took place near Sri Lanka in early March, when a U.S. submarine fired torpedoes to sink an Iranian destroyer, the IRIS Dena, which had a crew of 180 people. Initial reports said at least 80 people were killed. The ship had taken part in naval exercises in India and was on its way home. The United States had participated in the same exercises.
3. “We’re going to ensure that the region’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces, and no longer use their I.E.D.s, or roadside bombs as they are sometimes called, to so gravely wound and kill thousands and thousands of people, including many Americans.”
Mr. Trump was referring here to militias in the region that receive financial support and other types of backing from Iran. The militias are still active. Some in Iraq have fired rockets at U.S. diplomatic buildings there during the war, for instance. The most powerful militia, Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, has been attacked by Israel in recent years but has not been destroyed. Israel has invaded Lebanon and signaled this year that it could occupy part of the south.
Mr. Trump’s reference to I.E.D.s — improvised explosive devices — and roadside bombs is an anachronism: Two decades ago, Iran supported some Iraqi Shiite groups that were fighting American soldiers during the Iraq War. But militias have not been laying roadside bombs to attack Americans in recent years.
4. “And we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon. It’s a very simple message. They will never have a nuclear weapon.”
U.S. intelligence agencies did not assess before the war that Iran had made the decision to develop a nuclear weapon. But the Trump administration has pointed to Iran’s highly enriched uranium, which the government created and stockpiled after Mr. Trump withdrew from an Obama-era nuclear deal in 2018, as evidence that Iran wants the option to make a weapon.
Mr. Trump ordered airstrikes last June that severely damaged three nuclear sites in Iran. However, U.S. officials say they think some highly enriched uranium remains in tunnels buried under rubble. Sending ground troops into Iran to seize the material would be risky.
5. “Finally, to the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don’t leave your home. It’s very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”
This came near the end of Mr. Trump’s video address. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel had promised Mr. Trump in the run-up to the war that his country could help galvanize a popular uprising that would lead to the overthrow of the Iranian government. That revolt has not materialized.
Mr. Trump said he had carried out “regime change,” and pointed to airstrikes that have killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, and other senior officials.
However, the newly appointed supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the deceased cleric, is a hard-liner aligned with a powerful arm of the Iranian military. The current government remains theocratic, authoritarian and anti-American, and continues to wage a war of resistance.
Multiple U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed in recent days that the Iranian government is not currently willing to engage in substantial negotiations over ending the U.S.-Israeli war, according to U.S. officials.
The assessments say the Iranian government believes it is in a strong position in the war and does not have to accede to America’s diplomatic demands, the officials said. And while Iran is willing to keep channels open, they said, it does not trust the United States and does not think President Trump is serious about negotiations.
In the last year, Mr. Trump has ordered attacks on Iran twice in the middle of negotiations over the country’s nuclear program.
The assessments align with recent statements from Iranian officials, who reject Mr. Trump’s assertion that the two sides are making progress in discussions mediated by other countries. A spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the government in Tehran had not asked for a cease-fire, despite a statement from Mr. Trump that morning that it had, an Iranian state news agency reported.
Mr. Trump told reporters on Tuesday that the U.S. military would wrap up its campaign against Iran in two to three weeks. But any decision by Iran that it should continue fighting would complicate that objective. The president said in a speech on Wednesday night that “if there is no deal,” the U.S. military would strike “each and every one” of Iran’s power plants, an act that would be widely considered a war crime.
The Iranian government could engage diplomatically under the right conditions, said two Iranian officials and a Pakistani official. Tehran wants to see that Washington is willing to talk seriously about ending the war and not just negotiate a temporary cease-fire, they said. They added that the language in public statements from Iran has been harsher than that of private messages it has passed to the United States.
Those officials and American ones spoke on the condition of anonymity for this article because of the sensitivities around wartime diplomacy and intelligence.
Mr. Trump wrote on social media on Wednesday that 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!” But he said he would not consider that until Iran allowed ships to safely cross the Strait of Hormuz, which the Iranian military has effectively closed by attacking oil tankers.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, said on Wednesday that Mr. Trump’s claim that his country had asked for a cease-fire was “false and baseless,” according to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, or IRIB, the state news organization.
The dilemma over the strait has become a pivot point in the war, as its closure roils global markets and forces countries around the world to make plans to ration fuel.
It was also unclear to whom Mr. Trump was referring when he said “New Regime President.” The initial attacks by the United States and Israel killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and some senior officials, but the president of Iran since 2024, Masoud Pezeshkian, is alive and remains in office. Iranian clerics have appointed a new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the hard-line son of the deceased ayatollah who suffered leg injuries in the first strikes and has not been seen in public, according to Iranian and Israeli officials.
The United States and Iran are exchanging messages through intermediaries and perhaps directly, but are not in negotiations over terms of a cease-fire or ending the war, U.S. and Iranian officials said.
Mr. Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, on Wednesday released a letter addressed to the American people that suggested diplomacy might be possible, while also saying Iran would defy hostile powers. It was unclear whether the letter represented a consensus among Iranian leaders. On Tuesday, Mr. Pezeshkian said that the Trump administration’s attacks during previous negotiations demonstrated that the United States “does not believe in diplomacy and is merely seeking to impose its own interests.”
Mr. Trump has repeatedly spoken of the possibility of ending the war with a diplomatic settlement, but he has also threatened to escalate the war and expand the range of U.S. targets to energy infrastructure and desalination plants, attacks that many legal experts say would be war crimes.
The intelligence assessments, which appear in multiple reports, have been consistent since the beginning of the conflict, one official said.
Senior Iranian officials continue to resist making the kinds of concessions on its nuclear program and ballistic missile production that the Trump administration has demanded.
Iran says it has a right to build a civilian nuclear program by enriching uranium, which U.S. officials oppose. And Iranian officials see the military’s ballistic missiles as the country’s main form of deterrence, analysts say. Iranian officials perceive the United States and Israel pressuring Iran to give up both of those as an infringement on the country’s sovereignty.
Mr. Trump and his top aides have vacillated in their public statements on their war goals and whether the U.S. military has already achieved them, which complicates any efforts at diplomacy.
In recent days, Mr. Trump has said that the United States has already destroyed two regimes in Iran in this war, and that a third, more compliant one is now in place. However, the current government, led by Mr. Khamenei, remains theocratic, authoritarian and anti-American, and has vowed to carry on the fight against the Americans.
Mr. Trump has pointed to other goals: He has said he wants to seize Iran’s oil, and he brings up the nuclear program regularly. He also has discussed with U.S. military leaders whether American troops could enter Iran to seize a stockpile of highly enriched uranium that is believed to be in tunnels sealed by rubble as a result of American airstrikes last June.
The difficulties of diplomacy are exacerbated by the fact that major parts of the Iranian government are unable to communicate effectively after weeks of strikes by Israel and the United States.
Iranian officials are also wary of using certain communications channels they think are under surveillance by U.S. and Israeli spy agencies. The resulting confusion inside the government contributes to a lack of clarity on who in the Iranian leadership has the authority to make a deal, American officials said.
Iranian officials think they are fighting for the government’s very survival, given the strength of the American and Israeli attack, according to current and former officials. Some Iranian officials are skeptical that any peace deal would be lasting. Their leadership fears Israel could carry out a new attack months later even if Iran were to enter into a deal, U.S. officials said.
The U.S. intelligence assessments saying that Iran is not currently ready to make a deal have not been previously reported. The Washington Post earlier reported that U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that Iranian officials think they have the upper hand in the war.
Pakistan has become an intermediary in the diplomatic efforts because of ties between Pakistani and Iranian military leaders. In recent days, Pakistan has persuaded China to join it in publicly calling for an end to the war. China has commercial and military ties to Iran and is the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, but has been reluctant to engage in substantial diplomacy on the war.
China and Pakistan put out a joint five-point statement on Tuesday that called for, among other things, a cessation of hostilities and a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to ship traffic. Iran has been letting China-bound ships cross the strait, but countries across Asia and elsewhere are starting to plan for dire fuel shortages.
Asked whether China could be a guarantor of a diplomatic agreement, Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said in a statement that “China supports all efforts conducive to easing tensions, de-escalating the situation and restoring dialogue.”
“We call on parties to start peace talks as soon as possible,” he added. “We stand ready to enhance communication and coordination with Pakistan and others to jointly work for a cease-fire and peace and stability in the region.”
Farnaz Fassihi contributed reporting from New York, and Leily Nikounazar contributed research from Brussels.