IRAN has asked for a ceasefire, claims Donald Trump – but the president has vowed to continue blitzing the rogue state until the Strait of Hormuz is freed.
The request comes as Trump gears up for a world address tonight, in which he is expected to deliver a timeline for the end of the war.
Announcing the shock update on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “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!!!”
Trump has been hard at work attempting to release the vital 24-mile waterway – through which 20 per cent of the world’s oil passes – from the regime’s grip and halt a global recession in the process.
Earlier this week, Trump threatened to “obliterate” Iranian energy sites if a deal to reopen the shipping lane was not agreed, but insisted negotiations were making progress.
He reiterated his claim that regime change in Iran has “been achieved”, and the US is just “finishing the job”.
The president has meanwhile turned on his Nato allies, accusing them of dropping the ball by not sending warships to help America’s plight.
He earlier made the bombshell revelation that the US’ place in the military alliance is “beyond reconsideration” once the conflict is over.
America’s withdrawal would spell disaster for Western security chiefs as they scramble to shore up their nations’ defences without the additional £3.8trillion of US military might.
Nato would lose nearly half of its tanks, three quarters of its military aircraft, 90 per cent of its nukes and a third of its troops.
Sir Keir Starmer has staunchly defended Nato as “the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen” after Trump’s bombshell threat, adding that the UK would review its security ties with the EU.
But Trump has repeatedly blasted America’s allies for their inaction in the ongoing conflict, and claimed that – like Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin – he knows that Nato is a “paper tiger”.
He yesterday branded the alliance as “terrible”, telling fuel-starved members “get your own oil” after they failed to send warships and help release the Strait of Hormuz from Iran‘s grip.
Washington has poured countless resources into the weeks-long mission to free the vital 24-mile waterway, with oil prices shooting up with every day Tehran maintains a foothold.
And despite a crippling fuel shortage, Nato has been reluctant to contribute military resources to the conflict.
“Beyond not being there, it was actually hard to believe,” Trump told the Telegraph of Nato’s response.
“And I didn’t do a big sale. I just said, ‘Hey’, you know, I didn’t insist too much. I just think it should be automatic.
“We’ve been there automatically, including Ukraine.
“Ukraine wasn’t our problem. It was a test, and we were there for them, and we would always have been there for them.
“They weren’t there for us.”
The president singled out the UK, suggesting that the Royal Navy was a faltering fleet that Washington could no longer rely on.
“You don’t even have a navy. You’re too old and had aircraft carriers that didn’t work,” he said of Britain’s fleet.
If Trump were to follow through with his threat to leave Nato, it would send member states into a tailspin as they pour money into defence spending to make up the deficit.
Starmer has suggested that in order to soften the blow, European nations will need to band together.
Speaking at a No10 press conference, the Prime Minister said: “We will continue to stand up for the British national interest, and we will continue to do what we must to guide our country calmly through this storm.
“However, it is increasingly clear that as the world continues down this volatile path, our long-term national interest requires closer partnership with our allies in Europe and with the European Union.”
Tehran has meanwhile continued an unrelenting blitz of its gulf neighbours.
The rogue state hit a tanker off the coast of Qatar and Kuwait International Airport on Wednesday.
Warning sirens rung out across Israel overnight as came under fire from both Yemen and Iran.
