Zürcher Nachrichten - Trump says Iran president requests ceasefire, Tehran says 'false'

Tehran flatly 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 US president's talk of overtures came ahead of the much-anticipated prime-time speech scheduled for 9:00 pm (0100 GMT Thursday) -- his first since US-Israeli strikes on February 28 sparked the Iran war and a global energy crisis.

The United States would 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 his Truth Social platform.

Tehran has maintained 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. Late on Tuesday, he said that 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 that hostilities would not return.

But foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei rejected Trump's assertion that he had asked for a ceasefire, calling it "false and baseless".

Iran's Revolutionary Guards vowed Wednesday to keep 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 they said belonged to Israel. A British maritime security agency said the vessel was struck off Qatar, reporting damage but no casualties.

- 'Resist to the end' -

In a statement, Iran's military's central command said its latest missiles targeted Israeli cities including Tel Aviv and Eilat, as well as US military facilities in Bahrain and Kuwait, though there was no immediate confirmation of any hits.

An AFP journalist reported huge explosions in Tehran on Wednesday afternoon and earlier strikes near the former US embassy.

In a written statement on Wednesday, Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei said "the cruel and ruthless American and Zionist enemy knows no human, moral or vital limits".

The son of former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen since taking over from his father, who was killed in an airstrike on day one of the war.

Thousands of Iranians gathered in Tehran on Wednesday 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 at the procession.

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 in Israel said an Iranian missile attack Wednesday morning wounded 14 people, including an 11-year-old girl.

Israel also said its air defences responded to a missile fired from Yemen -- the third attack by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels since they entered the war over the weekend.

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.

"Nobody knows what's happening," resident Hassan Jalwan told AFP, adding that "displaced people have been sleeping in the open" in the area.

Lebanon's health ministry said Wednesday that Israeli attacks have 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's interior ministry also reported a fire at a business facility, and Saudi Arabia said several drones were intercepted.

A Bangladeshi national was also killed on Wednesday by falling shrapnel from an intercepted drone in the United Arab Emirates.

Meanwhile, a drone strike caused a massive fire at the storage facilities of an engine oil firm in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan.

"Every day, we hear the sound of drones," Waad Abdulrazaq, a 31-year-old truck driver, told AFP 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."

- Prices turmoil -

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 and Asia.

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 this week, while European inflation spiked and governments around the world started to unveil support measures.

"We're a small outfit," driver Nicolas Barthes told AFP at a protest against soaring fuel prices in the French city of Toulouse. "The additional diesel cost for me this month is €15,000, and we're not managing to pass all of that on."

Trump has criticised allies for not helping in the war, and President Emmanuel Macron repeated Wednesday that France would not take part.

Britain said Wednesday that it would host a meeting of about 35 countries this week to discuss how to reopen the strait.

burs-np/smw

T.Gerber--NZN