Camille Naredo

US President Donald Trump takes a question from a reporter after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 31, 2026. Brendan Smialowski, AFP

US President Donald Trump takes a question from a reporter after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 31, 2026. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)

Article (news)

Donald Trump

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px;display:block" width="960"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1775058990746AFP__20260331__A6DJ2AN__v1__MidRes__UsPoliticsTrump.jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="US President Donald Trump takes a question from a reporter after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 31, 2026. Brendan Smialowski, AFP" width="960"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">US President Donald Trump takes a question from a reporter after signing an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 31, 2026. <em>Brendan Smialowski, AFP</em></span></span></span></div><p>WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Iran had asked for a ceasefire, but ruled out any truce until the vital Strait of Hormuz was reopened for crucial energy shipments.</p><p>The White House said the president would make &quot;an important&quot; national address at 9:00 pm (0100 GMT Thursday) -- his first prime-time speech since the conflict began -- after he earlier said the war could be over in &quot;two weeks, maybe three&quot;.</p><p>Tehran has insisted there are no ongoing negotiations, and launched fresh missile strikes on Israel and US-allied Gulf nations on Wednesday, as AFP journalists reported massive explosions in the Iranian capital.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2026/4/1/how-middle-east-war-is-driving-up-shipping-costs-0959">READ: How Middle East war is driving up shipping costs</a></div><p>Trump&#x27;s statements have see-sawed between combative and conciliatory since US-Israeli strikes on February 28 sparked the regional war and a global energy crisis after Iran choked off shipping through the narrow Strait of Hormuz.</p><p>Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had said the Islamic republic had the &quot;necessary will&quot; for a ceasefire, but only if its foes guaranteed that hostilities would not return.</p><p>In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said Pezeshkian &quot;has just asked the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE!&quot;</p><p>&quot;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!!!&quot;</p><p>Iran&#x27;s Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday that the strait, through which one-fifth of the world&#x27;s oil normally passes, would remain closed to the country&#x27;s &quot;enemies&quot;.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2026/4/1/iran-guards-say-will-target-us-tech-firms-if-more-leaders-killed-0919">READ: Iran Guards say will target US tech firms if more leaders killed</a></div><p>The Guards also confirmed they hit an oil tanker in the Gulf they said belonged to Israel. A British maritime security agency said the vessel was struck off Qatar, reporting damage but no casualties.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>- &#x27;Every day we hear drones&#x27; -</strong></div><p>An AFP journalist reported huge explosions in Tehran on Wednesday afternoon and earlier strikes near the former US embassy, now a symbol of decades of US-Iranian tensions.</p><p>Iranian media also said steel complexes in central and southwest Iran were hit, causing &quot;significant damage and destruction&quot;.</p><p>The Israeli military confirmed it struck Tehran, while emergency services in Israel said an Iranian missile attack wounded 14 people, including an 11-year-old girl.</p><p>Israel also said its air defenses had responded to a missile fired from Yemen -- the third attack by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels since they entered the war over the weekend.</p><p>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.</p><p>A Lebanese security source and a Hezbollah source both told AFP that the strike had killed Hezbollah&#x27;s top commander for Iraq military affairs.</p><p>AFP correspondents at the scene saw a blackened, debris-strewn street.</p><p>&quot;Nobody knows what&#x27;s happening,&quot; resident Hassan Jalwan told AFP, adding that &quot;displaced people have been sleeping in the open&quot; in the area.</p><p>Israel launched broad strikes and a ground offensive against Lebanon after attacks on March 2 by the Tehran-backed militant group Hezbollah.</p><p>The Lebanese health ministry said Wednesday that Israeli attacks had killed more than 1,300, among the thousands reported killed across the region since the war began, mostly in Iran.</p><p>Iran has also carried out retaliatory attacks on nations in the Gulf it says have been launchpads for strikes.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2026/4/1/dfa-asks-iran-mark-ph-bound-ships-in-strait-of-hormuz-as-non-hostile-1924">READ: DFA asks Iran: Mark PH-bound ships in Strait of Hormuz as &#x27;non-hostile&#x27;</a></div><p>A Bangladeshi national was killed on Wednesday by falling shrapnel from an intercepted drone in the United Arab Emirates.</p><p>Strikes in Kuwait caused a large fire in fuel tanks at its international airport, Bahrain&#x27;s interior ministry said a fire broke out at a business facility, and Saudi Arabia said several drones were intercepted.</p><p>Meanwhile, a drone strike caused a massive fire at the storage facilities of an engine oil firm in Iraq&#x27;s autonomous Kurdistan.</p><p>&quot;Every day, we hear the sound of drones,&quot; Waad Abdulrazaq, a 31-year-old truck driver, told AFP near Iraq&#x27;s Erbil international airport.</p><p>&quot;We hear them in the morning, and we hear them at night. We can no longer sleep or live in peace.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>- Energy crisis -</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RCKCHwvzC3s?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>Optimism sparked by Trump&#x27;s comments on the timeline for the end of the war pushed oil prices down Wednesday, and stock markets rallied in Europe and Asia.</p><p>But Iran&#x27;s chokehold on critical oil and gas shipments through the Hormuz has sent energy prices soaring and unleashed global economic turmoil.</p><p>Average US gasoline prices topped $4 a gallon for the first time in four years this week, while European inflation spiked and governments around the world started to unveil support measures.</p><p>&quot;We&#x27;re a small outfit,&quot; driver Nicolas Barthes told AFP at a protest against soaring fuel prices in the French city of Toulouse. &quot;The additional diesel cost for me this month is €15,000, and we&#x27;re not managing to pass all of that on.&quot;</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2026/3/27/us-war-in-iran-china-casts-itself-as-savior-of-southeast-asia-1234">READ: US war in Iran: China casts itself as savior of Southeast Asia</a></div><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2026/4/1/asia-to-be-hit-hardest-by-iran-war-energy-crisis-kpler-0935">READ: Asia to be hit hardest by Iran war energy crisis -- Kpler</a></div><p>Susannah Streeter, chief investment strategist at Wealth Club, said prices were still about 50 percent above pre-war levels, showing &quot;skepticism still remains about Trump&#x27;s claims of progress&quot;.</p><p>Trump has criticized allies for not helping in the war, and President Emmanuel Macron repeated Wednesday that France would not take part.</p><p>Britain said Wednesday that it would host a meeting of about 35 countries this week to discuss how to reopen the strait.</p><p>Washington has not said who it is speaking with in Iran, which has denied it is in talks.</p><p>Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera he still receives messages from US envoy Steve Witkoff, &quot;directly, as before, and this does not mean that we are in negotiations&quot;.</p><p>Trump threatened earlier this week to &quot;obliterate&quot; Iran&#x27;s oil wells, its main Kharg Island export terminal, and possibly water desalination plants if the Islamic republic didn&#x27;t make a deal.</p>

<p>President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Iran had asked for a ceasefire, but ruled out any truce until the vital Strait of Hormuz was reopened for crucial energy shipments.</p>

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Iran had asked for a ceasefire, but ruled out any truce until the vital Strait of Hormuz was reopened for crucial energy shipments.

Trump says Iran asks for ceasefire as Tehran hit by fresh strikes

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Trump says Iran asks for ceasefire as Tehran hit by fresh strikes

AFP teams in Washington,

Tehran,

Jerusalem,

Beirut,

Dubai and Sanaa

Published April 02, 2026 01:53 AM PHT

Read More:

Donald Trump

United States

Iran

Israel

Middle East

war

conflict

Masoud Pezeshkian

Truth Social

Strait of Hormuz

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