US to leave Iran quickly and return if needed: Trump
ran denies Trump’s claim it requested ceasefire, calling it false and baseless Iran harbors no enmity towards ordinary Americans, Iranian president says in letter.
TEHRAN/WASHINGTON/JERUSALEM – Iran’s foreign ministry said Wednesday that US President Donald Trump’s claim that the country has asked for a ceasefire is “false and baseless”.
Iranian state TV reported the remarks as having been said by foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei. It comes after Trump said earlier in a Truth Social post that Iran’s “New Regime President”, who he did not name, had asked for a ceasefire – and that he would consider it “when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear”. Trump added: “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!!!
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a letter addressed to the American people that his country harbors no enmity towards ordinary Americans, Press TV reported on Wednesday.
He said in his letter that portraying Iran as a threat was “neither consistent with historical reality nor with present-day observable facts.”
The United States will be “out of Iran pretty quickly” and could return for “spot hits” if needed, President Donald Trump told Reuters on Wednesday, hours before he was scheduled to make a primetime address to the nation about the war.
With the conflict in its fifth week and Trump under pressure for an off-ramp amid rising gasoline prices, the president scheduled a 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT) speech to discuss the way forward. His address will end a day that began with Trump making a historic visit to the Supreme Court.
During a wave of airstrikes in Tehran overnight, the Israeli Air Force hit some 15 Iranian weapon production sites, the military says.
Among the sites was a “central complex” of the Iranian defense ministry, for the production and development of “advanced” anti-aircraft missiles, the military says.
he IDF says it also struck air defense systems, launch sites, and ballistic and anti-aircraft missile manufacturing and storage sites as part of the wave of strikes.
In the past two days, the IDF says it carried out over 400 strikes in Iran, using over 650 munitions.Sirens sounded repeatedly in central Israel Wednesday evening, shortly before the start of Passover, as Iran fired a major ballistic missile barrage and Hezbollah launched rockets from Lebanon, sending millions to bomb shelters and safe rooms as families across the country were preparing to hold their Seder meals.
The IDF had previously warned that a missile attack was expected on Seder night, one of the most widely observed Jewish rituals. According to initial IDF assessments, some 10 ballistic missiles were fired at central Israel, in the largest Iranian salvo on Israel since the early days of the war. Minutes later, sirens again sounded in central and northern Israel, as the IDF detected another Iranian ballistic missile launch, the sixth such salvo of the day.
One Iranian missile, apparently carrying a cluster bomb warhead, spread bomblets in central Israel. Rescue forces said damage was caused to homes and cars in the central cities of Rosh Haayin and Petah Tikva. Another bomblet struck a playground in Petah Tikva, causing damage, footage showed. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Iran’s missile fire on Israel had slowed to around 10 to 15 missiles a day in the past two weeks, down from around 90 on the first day of the war. Until Wednesday, Iran had not carried out large missile barrages, with recent attacks composed of a small number of missiles each, usually between one and three.