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U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that top Iranian officials had called him directly in the White House Situation Room to ask the United States to stop bombing their country. This claim came as U.S. forces completed a second consecutive night of strikes using 49 Tomahawk missiles, hitting targets as close as 40 miles from Tehran.
Iran's senior officials swiftly and flatly denied the claim, calling it "false" and a cover for what they described as "a U.S. retreat from confrontation."
Speaking to Fox News from the White House Situation Room alongside Vice President JD Vance, Jared Kushner, and special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump said he had spoken "directly" with Iranian officials who asked him to stop the bombing.
He said the current wave of strikes would end "shortly," but that he reserved the right to resume them.
"We'll bomb the s*** out of them tomorrow night," Trump warned, if Iran failed to agree to a peace deal.
He said the strikes involved 49 Tomahawk missiles and U.S. fighter jets targeting radar and air defense systems in southwest Iran, with some targets as close as 40 miles from Tehran. He confirmed Israel was not involved in the strikes.
Iran's senior officials rejected the account immediately.
Iran's Tasnim News Agency quoted a senior official saying Trump's claim was "false" and was intended to provide "cover" for what Tehran characterized as the U.S. retreating from confrontation.
"Trump's claim that Iranian officials spoke to him directly and demanded a halt to the bombing is a complete lie. No contact has been made with Trump, and Iran will respond militarily to the aggressions," the Iranian official reportedly said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the War Department was prepared to set the terms "to ensure that we get the kind of deal President Trump expects," and that the strikes were designed to strengthen the U.S. diplomatic position.
"If we need to negotiate with bombs, we'll negotiate with bombs, and we're very good at it. Nobody better in the world," Hegseth said at CENTCOM headquarters at the MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.
"We're in lockstep with the White House, in lockstep with the negotiating team to make sure we set the conditions. And the targets tonight are meant to do that," he added.
He cited Operation Project Freedom, which he said had recently allowed millions of barrels of oil to pass safely through the Strait of Hormuz under American protection at night, and said U.S. war capabilities, including intelligence, target sets and network penetration, had only improved during the ceasefire period.
Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, who was briefed by CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper, said he no longer believed Iran would make a deal with Trump through bombing alone, and framed the president's decision as binary.
"I'm not sure that it will do any good in terms of destroying their weapons by doing more bombing. We can destroy their civilian infrastructure, but I think the blockade is doing a pretty good job," Kennedy said.
"And the president's got a very hard decision to make, and it really, really boils down to this: Is he going to send in troops or not? That's the bottom line," he added.
Kennedy said he did not support sending troops without a full congressional briefing. "Before the president sends in troops, we all need to sit down and talk about it. He needs to share the intelligence he has with us," he said.
The State Department and the Treasury Department separately announced sanctions packages on Wednesday targeting 22 individuals and entities accused of procuring weapons for the Iranian military, including purchases of man-portable air defense systems on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Those sanctioned were based in Iran, Belarus, China, and Hong Kong, according to the announcements.
"The United States continues to maintain maximum pressure on Iran and take actions to deny the IRGC and the government of Iran access to the resources that sustain their destabilizing activities," State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said.
"Through Economic Fury, the Treasury Department is disrupting the foreign procurement networks that support the Iranian military’s efforts to acquire weapons," said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
"Treasury has frozen the Iranian regime’s assets, severely disrupted its economy, and dismantled the Iranian war machine. Treasury will not tolerate any support of the Iranian military," he added.
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