War shows little sign of easing despite Donald Trump claiming Iranian leadership ‘just asked’ for ceasefire
Israel unleashed two waves of attacks on Tehran and said it had killed a senior Hezbollah commander on Wednesday with little sign of the war easing up despite Donald Trump repeating a claim that Iran’s leadership was seeking a ceasefire.
The US president, writing on social media, said that Iran’s president had “just asked” for a ceasefire, and that American troops would be “out of Iran pretty quickly”, as he sought to extricate the US from the war. However, he confused the picture by incorrectly describing the president as a “new regime” leader.
The country’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has been in post since 2024, well before the start of the current month-long war. The country’s former supreme leader, Ali Khamenei was killed in the first minutes of the attack, and has been succeeded by his son, Mojtaba, who is widely considered more hardline than his father, especially after the killing of other members of his family in the same initial attack.
Trump nonetheless persevered later on Wednesday with the assertion that there had been “full regime change” in Iran. He said his agreement to a ceasefire would depend on the Iranian blockade of the strait of Hormuz being lifted. But Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson denied there had been a ceasefire request from Tehran, and said the US president’s account was “false and baseless”.
