The war began when the United States and Israel launched airstrikes across Iran, on 28 February, that killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, quickly mushrooming into a regional war that threatened to torpedo the global economy.

The US has achieved its goals in the country, Trump claimed Tuesday, primarily that of curtailing Iran's ability to obtain a nuclear weapon. "We're finishing the job, and I think within maybe two weeks, maybe a couple of days longer, to do the job."

This is not the first time during the month-long war that Trump, whose statements on the war have swung from combative to conciliatory, has said there would be an imminent end to the war. 

"TUNE IN," the White House said in a statement. "Tomorrow night at 9PM ET, President Trump will give an Address to the Nation to provide an important update on Iran.""

The White House’s move to strongly signal the end of the war comes as Trump’s original six-week estimate approaches and as new polling shows some two-thirds of Americans want the US to quit its involvement.

Gas prices have risen precipitously since the war’s start, topping $4 per gallon on average.

Tehran has insisted there are no ongoing negotiations with the United States, and that it has not responded to a reported 15-point proposal from Washington to end the war.

But Trump again in yet another conflicting message signaled the US might end the war without making a deal with Tehran. "They don’t have to make a deal with me, when we feel that they are for a long period of time put into the stone ages and they won’t be able to come up with a nuclear weapon, then we’ll leave," Trump said. "Whether we have a deal or not, it’s irrelevant." 

With the status of diplomatic efforts uncertain, Iranian state television reported that Tehran was under attack on Wednesday, and explosions were heard in the capital's north, east and centre.

The Israeli army confirmed it had carried out the strikes, and later said it was intercepting a missile attack from Iran which medics said wounded 14 people.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the Islamic republic had the "necessary will" to end the war, provided its enemies guaranteed it would not flare up again.

Trump threatened earlier this week that if Iran didn't agree to a deal, US forces would "obliterate" its oil wells, its main Kharg Island export terminal, and bomb power and water desalination plants.

The United States has not said who it is speaking with in Iran, which has denied it is in talks.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera that he still receives messages from US envoy Steve Witkoff, "directly, as before, and this does not mean that we are in negotiations".

"Whenever necessary we respond to these messages," Araghchi said in the interview aired on Wednesday.

Oil prices tumbled after Trump's comments about ending the war, and stocks rallied in Europe and Asia.

But the US president also said that France, China and other countries that seek passage through the Strait of Hormuz will have to "fend for themselves", lashing out at allies that have refused to help Washington's war effort.

In an interview with the right-leaning Telegraph newspaper, published on Wednesday, Trump once again voiced his anger over what he sees as the alliance’s lukewarm support for the US-Israeli war on Iran. He even suggested he would reconsider the US’ membership of NATO after the war.

"I always knew they were a paper tiger, and (Russian President Vladimir) Putin knows that too, by the way," he said.

“Go get your own oil,” he wrote on Truth Social, shortly before sources told CNN that the administration can’t promise to restore free navigation through the Strait of Hormuz before declaring mission accomplished.

Iran has maintained a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of global oil normally passes, allowing passage for some tankers while blocking "enemies" linked vessels.

Rising fuel prices stoked by the standoff have become a headache for Trump.

But Trump said he is not worried.

"All I have to do is leave Iran," he told reporters.

"And we'll be doing that very soon, and they'll come tumbling down."

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