Iran's president Masoud Pezeshkian said Tehran has the "necessary will" to bring the current conflict with the US and Israel to an end, but only once it gets ironclad guarantees that they will not attack Iran again in the future.
"The solution to normalising the situation is to stop their aggressive attacks," Pezeshkian said late on 31 March. "We have not sought tension or war at any point, and we have the necessary will to end this war, provided the essential conditions are met, especially guarantees this aggression will not be repeated."
Pezeshkian's comments were made in a telephone call with the president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, to discuss ways to de-escalate a situation that the latter said had become "extremely dangerous".
The war in the Middle East is now in its fifth week, with the US and Israel continuing their heavy aerial campaign against numerous targets across Iran.
Tehran has been responding to the attacks by launching missiles and drones at Israel and US-linked assets across the Mideast Gulf, including critical energy infrastructure in Gulf Co-operation Council states.
Iranian retaliatory attacks on commercial vessels in and around the strait of Hormuz have heavily restricted traffic through the key waterway, severely curtailing exports of crude oil, oil products, LNG, fertilisers and other commodities from the region.
"The current situation in the… strait of Hormuz is a direct result of the hostile and aggressive actions of the US and the Zionist regime [Israel] against Iran," Pezeshkian said, reiterating that the strait is only closed to vessels with links to "Iran's aggressors and their supporters".
Several Asian countries, including Malaysia and Thailand, have said in recent days that Iran has given assurances of safe passage for their vessels through the strait. Pakistan's foreign minister Ishaq Dar said over the weekend that Iran had also approved 20 Pakistani-flagged vessels to sail through the strait.
Pezeshkian's comments came as US president Donald Trump said US forces could leave Iran within two to three weeks, potentially signalling the end of the ongoing war.
"All I have to do is leave Iran, and we will be doing that very soon," Trump said late on 31 March, offering a timeline of "maybe two weeks, maybe three".
The Trump administration has been claiming negotiations with unidentified Iranian officials since last week, repeatedly boasting of "very good" progress. Iranian officials have consistently denied that any negotiations are underway.
But in an apparent change of tack, Trump said ending the war was now not dependent on securing a formal agreement with Tehran.
"Iran does not have to make a deal, no," Trump said. "They don't have to make a deal with me."
