Trump to deliver prime-time address; Iran denies it has asked for a ceasefire; Albanese pledges $1 billion for struggling businesses

US President Donald Trump said that Iran wants a ceasefire, but will consider it if the Strait of Hormuz is reopened.

“The President of Iran’s New Regime, far less Radicalized and far more intelligent than his predecessors, has just requested a ceasefire from the United States!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social around midnight AEDT.

“We will evaluate the Strait of Hormuz when it is open, free and clear. Until then, we will return Iran to oblivion, or as they say, back to the Stone Age!!!”

This week, after Trump told Britain and other countries to “go buy your own oil,” the White House and other parts of the U.S. government clarified that reopening the strait was not seen as a primary goal of the Iran mission.

The aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush is planned to go to the Middle East along with three destroyers, two US officials said. The carrier strike group consists of more than 6,000 sailors. This happened at the same time that thousands of soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division also began arriving in the Middle East, according to two other US officials.

with AP