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US President Donald Trump is delivering a prime-time address to the nation to provide an important update on Iran as the conflict nears no end in its fifth week. The leader hailed his military campaign against the Islamic Republic as a success.
The conflict in the Gulf region started on Feb. 28 with the joint US-Israeli bombing of Iran which killed the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Trump and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu have called for regime change in Tehran. Iran has retaliated by hitting countries around the Gulf with drones and missiles. The Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed.
Washington could be done with its five week-long war with Iran within two to three weeks if a deal is reached on Tehran giving up any capability to develop a nuclear weapon, Trump said on Wednesday.
Ahead of Trump's speech, stocks opened higher in Japan and South Korea, sending the broader MSCI Asia Pacific Index up 0.5%. The moves came after the S&P 500 Index rose 0.7% Wednesday and the Nasdaq 100 advanced 1.2% on expectations that an end to the war will improve crude oil flows from the Middle East and support economic growth, Bloomberg News reported.
Oil prices were steady. WTI crude futures hovered near $98.82 per barrel, extending their recent retreat. Brent was trading near $100.
Trump said he took actions that none of his predecessors would on Iran. "Essentially, I did what no other president was willing to do... They made mistakes, and I am correcting them."
He said there would be "no Middle East and no Israel" if he had not terminated former President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. "I want to thank our allies in the Middle East – Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, and Bahrain. They’ve been great and we will not let them fail in any way shape or form."
Donald Trump said the military campaign will wind down in three weeks when its objectives are met.
Donald Trump told oil importing countries to take responsibility to secure the Strait of Hormuz themselves and offered to sell American oil to affected countries.
"We don't need oil from the Hormuz strait. Those who import from there must take care of the passage. We will be helpful but they should take the lead to protect the oil. To those countries who can't get oil, many of which refused to be involved in the decapitation of Iran, I suggest buy oil from the US. Build up some delayed courage. Go to the Strait and just take it, protect is. Iran is decimated."
President Donald Trump said the US must complete mission in Iran and "we will finish the job very fast". "We are getting very close to finishing job in Iran. We will not let Middle East allies get hurt or fail."
"Our objectives are clear. Not letting Iran to threaten American interests in the region and restricting influence within its borders," Trump said.
"Their ability to launch missiles and drones is dramatically curtailed, and their weapons factories and rocket launchers are being blown to pieces – very few of them left," Trump said.
Donald Trump slammed Barack Obama over the Iran deal and said his decision to "hand them green cash" to Tehran in a nuclear deal was a disaster. The nuclear deal signed in 2015 was scrapped by Trump in 2018 during his first term.
"I will never allow Iran to have nuclear weapons," Trump said.
Donald Trump said his military campaign has been a great success. "Most of Iran's leaders are dead. Their navy is gone."
"It’s been just one month since the United States military began Operation Epic Fury targeting the world’s number one state sponsor of terror, Iran. In these past four weeks, our armed forces have delivered swift, decisive, overwhelming victories on the battlefield."
Canadian Prime Minister Marl Carney spoke to President Trump and congratulated him on the successful launch of Artemis II.
"We discussed the courage of the astronauts, including Colonel Jeremy Hansen, the value of cooperation in space, and developments in the Middle East conflict," he said on X.
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Earlier this evening I spoke with President Trump and congratulated him on the successful launch of Artemis II.
— Mark Carney (@MarkJCarney) April 2, 2026
We discussed the courage of the astronauts, including Colonel Jeremy Hansen, the value of cooperation in space, and developments in the Middle East conflict.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has urged American people to look beyond "a flood of distortions and manufactured narratives" and ask whose interests are being served by the US-Israeli war on Iran.
In an open letter addressed to the US public and shared by Iran’s state-run broadcaster PressTV, Pezeshkian on Wednesday questioned whether President Donald Trump’s 'America First' policy is "truly among the priorities of the US government today".
"Exactly which of the American people’s interests are truly being served by this war?... Does the massacre of innocent children, the destruction of cancer-treatment pharmaceutical facilities, or boasting about bombing a country ‘back to the stone ages’ serve any purpose other than further damaging the United States’ global standing?” the Iranian leader wrote.
Iran's President has asked the United States for a ceasefire, Donald Trump claimed in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday. He further added that he will consider it "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!!!," he said in his post on Wednesday.
The comments come after he hinted at ending the Iran war sooner, saying that the US is not going to be there too much longer, despite Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warning that the upcoming days in Tehran will be decisive amid escalating tensions.
US index futures were little changed Thursday morning, with S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq-100 futures just above the flatline. Dow Jones futures were up 13 points, or 0.03% higher.
Overnight, the S&P 500 advanced 0.72%, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.16%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.48%.
Asian stock markets traded higher on Thursday, tracking similar moves on Wall Street as investors await an address by Donald Trump amid hopes that the US president is looking to end the Iran war.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.8%, while the Topix saw a larger gain of 1%. South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.33% and the small-cap Kosdaq was up 1.14%.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 opened 0.45% higher. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index futures were marginally higher than the HSI’s last close.
The United States could be done with its five week-long war with Iran within two to three weeks, President Donald Trump said on Wednesday. He added that it's possible the war will end sooner if a deal is reached on Tehran giving up any capability to develop a nuclear weapon.
"We have had regime change. Now, regime change was not one of the things I had as a goal. I had one goal: they will have no nuclear weapon, and that goal has been attained. They will not have nuclear weapons. But we're finishing the job, and I think within maybe two weeks, maybe a couple of days longer, to do the job. But we want to knock out every single they have," Trump said from the Oval Office.
"It's possible that we'll have a deal because they want to make a deal. They want to make a deal more than I want to make a deal. But in a fairly short period of time, we'll be finished," Trump said.
"Now we have a group of people that's very — that are very different. They're much more reasonable," he said, projecting optimism about talks.
US President Donald Trump is set to deliver a major speech on Iran as the war intensifies today morning.
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