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Middle East crisis live: Trump repeats Nato criticism and claims Iran has asked for a ceasefire | US-Israel war on Iran
What should we infer from Trump’s claim Iran has asked for ceasefire?
Peter Beaumont
President Trump’s Truth Social post claiming that Iran’s new president had asked for a ceasefire is problematic in a number of key details.
While Iran might have a new Supreme Leader in Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father Ali who was assassinated in the opening salvoes of the war, it does not have a “new president” who remains exactly the same person as before the start of the war – Masoud Pezeshkian.
If, at a pinch one could argue that, Trump is talking sloppily about the president of a “new regime” that still remains sharply at odds with most expert analysis which suggests that far from being “less radicalized” the regime has taken a more hardline and unpredictable turn since Ali Khamenei’s killing as the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps has moved to further consolidate its power.
Even in the event that Pezeshkian is behind an undisclosed ceasefire initiative of some kind – which Iran has not commented on – it is not clear what the status that might means in terms of Tehran’s internal power dynamics where the role of Supreme Leader is viewed historically as being more powerful than the office of president.
In a phone call this week with Antonio Costa, president of the European Council, Pezeshkian suggested that Iran could end of the conflict but with the important proviso of guarantees against a repeat attack – which is one of Tehran’s key demands and which Trump may be misrepresenting.
“We possess the necessary will to end this conflict, provided that essential conditions are met, especially the guarantees required to prevent repetition of the aggression,” Pezeshkian’s office said in a statement.
When Iran has commented on contacts through the mediation of Pakistan it has been to suggest that Trump’s remarks on progress have been highly exaggerated, a familiar Trump trait both in his interventions in Middle East diplomacy and over the war in Ukraine where repeated claims of imminent breakthroughs have tended not to survive contact with reality.
Amid widespread reporting that Trump is looking for an exit strategy for a deeply unpopular war that he has already become bored with, what seems more likely is that he is trying to shape a narrative that would allow him to say the war has been won.
Key events
Trump repeats claims of Iran ‘regime change’
Reuters has published further remarks from Donald Trump in its phone interview with the US president.
When asked if he was thinking about pulling the US out of Nato, he said: “Oh, absolutely without question. Wouldn’t you do that if you were me?”
He added: “They haven’t been friends when we needed them. We’ve never asked them for much … it’s a one-way street.”
He also expressed his hope for a deal with the new leaders in Iran after airstrikes killed supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
He again claimed that there has been a “full regime change” in Iran, adding: “I’m dealing with a very good chance that we’ll make a deal because they don’t want to be blasted anymore.
“I didn’t need regime change, but we got it because of the casualties of war. We got it. So we have regime change and the big thing we have is they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon. Nor do they want one.”
As for the enriched uranium still possessed by Iran, Trump said: “That’s so far underground, I don’t care about that.
“We’ll always be watching it by satellite.”
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has acknowledged the attack on an oil tanker in Qatari waters, alleging that it had ties to Israel.
As reported earlier, the Qatari defence ministry said the Aqua 1 fuel oil tanker leased to the state-owned QatarEnergy was hit by an Iranian cruise missile. There were no reports of injuries and the 21 crew members escaped unharmed.
In a statement carried by Iranian state media, the IRGC said an oil tanker belonging to the “Zionist regime with the trade name ’Aqua 1’” in the the Persian Gulf “was precisely targeted”.
It was not immediately clear what links the oil tanker have to Israel.
In further news alerts, Reuters reported Trump as saying Iran will not have a nuclear weapon “nor do they want one”.
Iran has long maintained that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, with leaders citing a religious decree (known as a fatwa) against weapons of mass destruction. The US and Israel have always disputed this claim.
Trump says US will be ‘out of Iran pretty quickly’ – Reuters
In an interview with Reuters news agency, Donald Trump said the US will be “out of Iran pretty quickly” but could return for “spot hits”.
Ahead of his scheduled national address this evening, the US president said he would express his disgust with Nato over what he described as its lack of support for his war objectives against Iran. He added that he was “absolutely” considering an attempt to withdraw the US from the alliance, according to Reuters.
He did not give a timeline of when the US could end the war, saying: “I can’t tell you exactly… we’re going to be out pretty quickly.”
He added: “They [Iran] won’t have a nuclear weapon because they are incapable of that now, and then I’ll leave, and I’ll take everybody with me, and if we have to we’ll come back to do spot hits.”
Dan Sabbagh
British counter drone crews in northern Iraq downed over 10 Iranian drones overnight, the UK Ministry of Defence said.
Attacks have continued seemingly undimmed over the past month, with some or more aimed at western bases, previously for troops engaged in counter Islamic State operations before the US and Israel attacked Iran.
It was not clear what Donald Trump meant by “Iran’s new regime president”, as there has been no recent change in that role. Masoud Pezeshkian remains the Iranian president, a role he has served since 2024.
Trump claims Iran’s president has asked US for a ceasefire
The US would only consider a ceasefire with Iran if the Hormuz strait opens, Donald Trump has declared on social media.
He said Iran had asked for a ceasefire, writing:
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! 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!!! President DJT
Explosions were heard in the Syrian capital Damascus and its surrounding areas, state TV al Ekhbariyah reported on Wednesday.
The network said that that the blasts were likely caused by Israeli air defences intercepting Iranian missiles.
Iranian authorities warned Nato member Bulgaria last month not to let the US use its airports for planes participating in military operations in Iran, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
Earlier on Wednesday, Stanislav Balabanov, a deputy with the ‘There is Such People’ party, showed a note from 18 March in which the Iranian government protested against US military refuelling planes parked at Bulgaria’s Vasil Levski airport.
In the note, Iran said it “reserves the right to take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty, security and national interests in accordance with international law.” Later on Wednesday, in a statement to reporters, deputy foreign minister Marin Raikov confirmed the note and said: “Bulgaria is not at war.“
“No combat aircraft are being loaded over Bulgaria to participate in military operations,” he told reporters. “We maintain intact diplomatic relations with the Iranian side.“
The new supreme leader of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei, has issued a message of gratitude to Hezbollah’s secretary general, Naim Qassem.
In a statement carried by Iranian media, he praised Hezbollah for its “perseverance, steadfastness and patience” against “the most ruthless enemies of the Islamic world”, as he vowed Iran will continue to support groups fighting US and Israeli forces across the Middle East.
Khamenei has not been seen since the war began on 28 February and has only issued written statements since becoming Iran’s new supreme leader. US and Israeli officials believe he was wounded in the attack that killed six of his family members, including his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and remains in hiding.
Here are some of the latest images from across the Middle East:
The Israeli military claimed to have killed a Hezbollah commander who was responsible for the group’s military activity in southern Lebanon.
In a statement on social media, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Yusuf Ismail Hashem was killed in a strike in Beirut yesterday. It described Hashem as a “senior commander with 40+ years of experience” and that he was “a central figure in Hezbollah”.
There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah on the reported killing.
The IDF has escalated its attacks in southern Lebanon as Hezbollah continues to fight an Israeli ground invasion. Israel said it will occupy swathes of southern Lebanon and destroy the homes along the border to prevent the return of about 600,000 people, prompting concerns of long-term forced displacement.
The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said that when fighting with Hezbollah ended, Israel would occupy the area under the Litani River, about 19 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border, as part of its so-called buffer zone inside southern Lebanon.
Ebrahim Azizi, the chair of the Iranian parliament’s national security commission, has mocked Donald Trump for declaring “regime change” in Iran, saying the only change the US has achieved in the war is losing access to the strait of Hormuz.
In a post on X, he said:
Trump has finally achieved his dream of ‘regime change’—but in the region’s maritime regime!
The strait of Hormuz will certainly reopen, but not for you; it will be open for those who comply with the new laws of Iran.
Taz Ali
Donald Trump said he will wrap up his military campaign against Iran in two to three weeks and that a deal is not necessary to end the conflict.
“We will be leaving very soon,” he told reporters in the Oval Office last night.
The White House said the US president will provide “an important update” during a national address this evening at 9pm Washington time (2am BST). While it is unclear what updates he will provide on the war, questions remain over whether the US has achieved its shifting objectives since launching a joint attack with Israel against Iran more than four weeks ago.
Trump said on Monday that he has already achieved regime change by killing Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, even though he has been replaced by his son, Mojtaba. Other key Iranian officials have been killed since the outbreak of the war, but critics say a change in Iran’s leadership does not constitute a regime change.
“What we are seeing in Iran is not a regime change — but a transformation within the regime itself, one that has made it more extreme,” Danny Citrinowicz, the Israeli military’s former top Iran researcher, posted on X.
Starmer says summit with EU later this year will lead to ‘more ambitious’ plans for cooperation
Andrew Sparrow
Keir Starmer said he will push for a closer relationship with the EU at a summit coming up later this year.
“We want to be more ambitious, closer economic cooperation, closer security cooperation, a partnership that recognises our shared values, our shared interest and our shared future,” he said in a press conference in Downing Street.
When asked by a reporter whether a closer relationship with the EU is an acknowledgment that the relationship with the US is changing, Starmer responded:
Firstly, Nato is the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen. And it has kept us safe for many decades. And we are fully committed to Nato.
Secondly, that, whatever the pressure on me and others, whatever the noise, I’m going to act in the British national interest in all the decisions that I make.
And that’s why I’ve been absolutely clear that this is not our war, and we’re not going to get dragged into it.
But I’m equally clear that, when it comes to defence and security and our economic future, we have to have closer ties with Europe.
His remarks followed a Telegraph interview with Donald Trump, in which the US president said he was considering pulling the US out of Nato, and suggested the UK does not have a proper navy.
Trump’s frustration with Nato over its refusal to back his Iran war is clear – snap analysis
Jakub Krupa
Trump’s latest comments come as he increasingly hardens his language against European allies, blaming them for difficulties in his Iran operation.
In last days, he specifically targeted European allies, calling them “cowards” and telling them to “build up some delayed courage” and take control over the strait of Hormuz.
He and his senior officials also criticised a number of specific countries, particularly Spain, which has been most vocally critical of the US-Israeli war against Iran, and France.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, warned last night about the sharply escalating frustration with Nato, as he told Fox News: “We are going to have to reexamine whether or not this alliance that has served this country well for a while is still serving that purpose or has now become a one-way street, where America is simply in a position to help Europe but when we need the help of our allies, they deny us basing rights and overflight.”
Italy is the latest country to risk the US administration’s anger, after it has denied the use of an airbase in Sicily to US military planes carrying weapons for the war in Iran after the US did not follow the required authorisation procedure.
For more on the impact of the war in Europe, follow our Europe live blog here:
Keir Starmer is giving an update on the Iran war at a press conference in Downing Street, where he sought to reassure the British public that the government is working on a plan to help with the cost of living.
“We will continue to stand up for the British national interest, and we continue to do what we must to guide our country calmly through this storm,” he said.
You can follow the live updates on our UK politics blog here:
Two men and two women have died after a small boat sank in the Channel between France and Britain, French local authorities have said.
“A taxi-boat sinking occurred today. The situation is still being assessed and remains subject to change,” local authorities in Calais stated.
According to the French media outlet La Voix du Nord, rescue services were called to Équihen-Plage early on Thursday morning.
In the past year, people smugglers have been using motoring dinghies along stretches of the northern French and Belgian coasts, picking migrants up along the shore. Authorities refer to them as “taxi-boats”.
Wednesday’s incident came the day after 102 people got into difficulty trying to cross the Channel and had to be rescued.
In another recent incident, two people died trying to cross the Channel at the beginning of April.
The use of taxi-boats by people smugglers is controversial as they move along the coast picking up people at different points rather than having one fixed launching point into the sea. There have been reports that some of these taxi-boats are starting their journey from Belgium and then moving along the French coast.
The UK and France are negotiating a fresh deal to stop small boats crossing the Channel, with an interim arrangement in place after they failed to renew an agreement that expired on 31 March.
About 2,200 refugees and migrants crossed the Channel, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, to the UK in the first two months of 2026, according to data from the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory. About 41,500 people made the crossing last year.
Rescue efforts remain under way after the incident off the coast of northern France, local media is reporting.
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Oil rises and Asian stocks fall amid worries over ‘fragile’ ceasefire deal in Middle East – business live | Business
Introduction: Oil prices rise and Asian stocks fall amid worries over uncertain ceasefire deal
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.
Uncertainty over the US-Iran ceasefire deal has triggered a rise in oil prices this morning.
Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, rose by 2.1% to $96.77 a barrel, while New York light crude rose by almost 3% to $97.23 a barrel. Yesterday, Brent crude dropped by more than 10% after initial news of the ceasefire emerged.
Meanwhile Asian stocks have been choppy overnight: Japan’s Nikkei has slipped by 0.7% and the South Korean Kospi has dropped sharply by 2%. Both countries are highly exposed to the conflict in the Middle East as they rely on oil and gas supplies from the region.
In China, the CSI300 index fell 0.5% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng also slipped 0.2%.
It comes as investors worry about the ‘fragile’ nature of the US-Iran ceasefire deal announced yesterday, as Israel continues its assaults on Lebanon and the impasse in the strait of Hormuz continues.
Jim Reid, a strategist at Deutsche Bank, says this morning:
Those overnight losses follow several indications that the ceasefire isn’t holding quite as expected on Tuesday night. For instance, both the UAE and Kuwait said yesterday that their air defences had been intercepting drones from Iran. And on the Iranian side, their Parliament’s Speaker Ghalibaf said that three points of the ceasefire agreement had been violated.
Moreover, the IRGC warned of a “regret-inducing response” if Israel’s strikes against Lebanon didn’t stop immediately, whilst the Fars news agency said that the passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz was halted because of Israel’s continued strikes on Lebanon. So collectively, that’s raised concern about how durable this ceasefire will prove, particularly with it only being a two-week truce.”
Reid notes that US president Donald Trump posted on social media a couple of hours ago that US forces would “remain in place, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with”, and that if not military action would be “stronger than anyone has ever seen before”, and that the US military was “looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest”.
He also criticised NATO in a separate post overnight, saying that they weren’t “there when we needed them”, and called on people to “remember Greenland, that big, poorly run, piece of ice!!!”. So that raised concerns about a repeat of mid-January, when Trump’s call for the US to take Greenland and the threat of European tariffs drove a risk-off move in global markets.
The agenda
-
8.30am BST: Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey appears before the European parliament committee on economic and monetary affairs
-
9.30am BST: Bank of England credit conditions survey for Q1 2026
-
1.30pm BST: US gross domestic product, initial jobless claims, PCE inflation measure and wholesales inventories
-
3pm BST: IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva expected to deliver a speech on the outlook for the global economy and outline key policy priorities for member countries
Key events
Israel instructs Energean to reopen natural gas platform
Perhaps a sign that Israel expects the ceasefire to hold: the Israeli energy ministry has instructed Energean to reopen operations at its Karish natural gas platform, Reuters has reported.
The gas platform, which is off Israel’s Mediterranean coast, has been shut down for more than a month since the outbreak of war with Iran.
Mohit Kumar, of the broker Jefferies, says the “fragile” nature of the ceasefire deal has started to show cracks after Iran accused the US and Israel of breaking the terms due to attacks on Lebanon – but that the agreement could still hold.
Despite the fragile nature of the ceasefire, we believe that the truce will hold. Not because we believe that a solution has been found but because of the MAD (mutually assured destruction) principle.
…US and Israel have realised that without a solution to cheap drone interceptors and someway to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, it’s a war that cannot be won. IRGC will be struggling with a destroyed economy which can pave the path for an uprising later. Hence, need time to consolidate their power particularly after a number of senior leaders have been killed. Given the interest of both parties, we believe that an uneasy truce will hold.
But as argued yesterday, it’s an unstable equilibrium. The biggest losers of this arrangement have been the Gulf countries who would face an emboldened Iran. Iran’s ideology to export the Islamic Revolution would not bode well for the other gulf countries. Economically too, they have taken a setback with the path of projecting Middle East as an investment hub potentially delayed by a few years.
Hence, we do not see oil going back to pre war levels. We also think that a geopolitical risk premium would need to be priced in different asset classes.
From a market perspective, we have been in the low risk mode but with a positive bias. The positive view remains beyond the war, but we are not ready to sound all clear. Hence for investors who are long risk, we would recommend using yesterdays rally to take some profits which still keeping a positive risk bias. Market positioning is still small short to neutral and hence we would definitely not want to be short this market.
Here’s Trump’s full post on his social media platform, Truth Social:
All U.S. Ships, Aircraft, and Military Personnel, with additional Ammunition, Weaponry, and anything else that is appropriate and necessary for the lethal prosecution and destruction of an already substantially degraded Enemy, will remain in place in, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with. If for any reason it is not, which is highly unlikely, then the “Shootin’ Starts,” bigger, and better, and stronger than anyone has ever seen before. It was agreed, a long time ago, and despite all of the fake rhetoric to the contrary – NO NUCLEAR WEAPONS and, the Strait of Hormuz WILL BE OPEN & SAFE. In the meantime our great Military is Loading Up and Resting, looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest. AMERICA IS BACK!
Introduction: Oil prices rise and Asian stocks fall amid worries over uncertain ceasefire deal
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.
Uncertainty over the US-Iran ceasefire deal has triggered a rise in oil prices this morning.
Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, rose by 2.1% to $96.77 a barrel, while New York light crude rose by almost 3% to $97.23 a barrel. Yesterday, Brent crude dropped by more than 10% after initial news of the ceasefire emerged.
Meanwhile Asian stocks have been choppy overnight: Japan’s Nikkei has slipped by 0.7% and the South Korean Kospi has dropped sharply by 2%. Both countries are highly exposed to the conflict in the Middle East as they rely on oil and gas supplies from the region.
In China, the CSI300 index fell 0.5% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng also slipped 0.2%.
It comes as investors worry about the ‘fragile’ nature of the US-Iran ceasefire deal announced yesterday, as Israel continues its assaults on Lebanon and the impasse in the strait of Hormuz continues.
Jim Reid, a strategist at Deutsche Bank, says this morning:
Those overnight losses follow several indications that the ceasefire isn’t holding quite as expected on Tuesday night. For instance, both the UAE and Kuwait said yesterday that their air defences had been intercepting drones from Iran. And on the Iranian side, their Parliament’s Speaker Ghalibaf said that three points of the ceasefire agreement had been violated.
Moreover, the IRGC warned of a “regret-inducing response” if Israel’s strikes against Lebanon didn’t stop immediately, whilst the Fars news agency said that the passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz was halted because of Israel’s continued strikes on Lebanon. So collectively, that’s raised concern about how durable this ceasefire will prove, particularly with it only being a two-week truce.”
Reid notes that US president Donald Trump posted on social media a couple of hours ago that US forces would “remain in place, and around, Iran, until such time as the REAL AGREEMENT reached is fully complied with”, and that if not military action would be “stronger than anyone has ever seen before”, and that the US military was “looking forward, actually, to its next Conquest”.
He also criticised NATO in a separate post overnight, saying that they weren’t “there when we needed them”, and called on people to “remember Greenland, that big, poorly run, piece of ice!!!”. So that raised concerns about a repeat of mid-January, when Trump’s call for the US to take Greenland and the threat of European tariffs drove a risk-off move in global markets.
The agenda
-
8.30am BST: Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey appears before the European parliament committee on economic and monetary affairs
-
9.30am BST: Bank of England credit conditions survey for Q1 2026
-
1.30pm BST: US gross domestic product, initial jobless claims, PCE inflation measure and wholesales inventories
-
3pm BST: IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva expected to deliver a speech on the outlook for the global economy and outline key policy priorities for member countries
-
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