Iran's Revolutionary Guards insisted on Wednesday that the strategic strait of Hormuz will remain closed to the country's "enemies" as U.S. President Donald Trump said he would only consider a ceasefire if it was reopened.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Iran has asked for a ceasefire but that the United States would only consider this once the Strait of Hormuz is clear for shipping.

Iran's president "has just asked the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. "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 Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday France had not been consulted and wasn't taking part in the war against Iran, after U.S. leader Donald Trump criticized the country's overflight ban on planes carrying military supplies for the conflict.

Should the U.S. decide to send in military forces to secure Iran's uranium stockpile, it would be a complex, risky and lengthy operation, fraught with radiation and chemical dangers, according to experts and former government officials.

U.S. President Donald Trump has offered shifting reasons for the war in Iran but has consistently said a primary objective is ensuring the country will "never have a nuclear weapon." Less clear is how far he is willing to go to seize Iran's nuclear material.

Iran hit an oil tanker off the coast of Qatar and Kuwait's airport on Wednesday while airstrikes battered Tehran — an unrelenting tempo hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was nearly ready to wind down the war.

Trump, who is scheduled to address the nation later in the day, said he could walk away from the war in two to three weeks once he felt confident Iran would not be able to build a nuclear weapon — even if Tehran does not agree to a ceasefire.

Yemen's Houthis on Wednesday claimed a missile attack targeting Israel that they said was launched jointly with their backer Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah group -- the third such attack by the Houthis since they entered the Middle East war.

The Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen said Wednesday they fired a barrage of ballistic missiles toward Israel.

U.S. President Donald Trump told The New York Post on Tuesday that he believes the Iran war is likely to end soon and that other nations can reopen the Strait of Hormuz themselves — after he posted to social media a video of huge explosions near Isfahan that he said hit “a lot of stuff.”

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the next days of the Iran war will be "decisive" while refusing to rule out U.S. ground forces playing a role in the conflict.

U.S. President Donald Trump said nations upset by high fuel prices should "go get your own oil" as Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz.

His comments in a social media post on Tuesday came as average U.S. gas prices shot past $4 a gallon.

The Gulf states are unified in calling for a de-escalation of the Middle East war, Qatar said Tuesday as Tehran launched new strikes against its neighbors.

"Our understanding is that there is a very unified position in the Gulf on calling for the de-escalation and an end to the war," Qatar's foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari told a regular news briefing.