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airstrikes and missiles continuing to hit a wide range of targets across the Middle East.

Trump is set to address the nation at 9:00pm Wednesday (0100 GMT Thursday).

In an interview with Reuters, Trump said he would consider withdrawing the US from the Nato alliance in his speech.

Asked when the United States would consider the war over, Trump said: “I can’t tell you exactly ... we’re going to be out pretty quickly.”

US action had ensured Iran would not have nuclear arms, Trump said: “They won’t have a nuclear weapon because they are incapable of that now, and then I’ll leave, and I’ll take everybody with me. And if we have to, we’ll come back to do spot hits.”

He is expected to reiterate a two-to-three-week timetable for ending the war in Iran during the address, a White House official later said.

The remarks underscored Washington’s shifting and, at times, contradictory statements about a conflict that has killed thousands, spread across the region, and caused unprecedented energy disruption.

They also came at a time when the US is sending more troops to the region, sparking fear of ground operations.

The New York Times also reported yesterday that the Pentagon was doubling its fleet of Air Force A-10 attack planes in the Middle East.

The Air Force is dispatching 18 A-10s to join roughly one dozen A-10s already in the region, the report said, citing US officials.

The slow-moving A-10 “Warthog” could be used to help US ground forces seize territory near Hormuz or Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil hub in the northern Persian Gulf.

The planes have been stopping at Royal Air Force Lakenheath, a base in England, en route to the region, according to flight-tracking data and Pentagon officials.

Two security sources from Pakistan, which is mediating in the conflict, earlier told Reuters that Islamabad had proposed a temporary ceasefire to both sides but had not heard back from either.

Trump had signalled on Tuesday that he could wind down the war in two to three weeks even without a deal, while also scaling up threats to pull the US out of the Nato defence alliance if European states did not help stop Iran from threatening the waterway.

Meanwhile, International Energy Agency head Fatih Birol said the main issue so far from Iran’s effective closure of Hormuz was the shortage of jet fuel and diesel.

“We are seeing that in Asia, but soon, I think, in April or May, it would come to Europe,” Birol said in a podcast with Nicolai Tangen, head of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund. The loss of oil in April would be twice that in March, he added.

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

But 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.

An Iranian official, Mehdi Tabatabai, said in a post on X that an important letter to the American people from Iran’s president would be released “in a few hours”.

With the status of diplomatic efforts uncertain, Iranian state television reported that Tehran was under attack yesterday, with explosions heard in the capital.

An AFP journalist said strikes hit an area near the former US embassy -- transformed into a museum known as the “Den of Spies” and a symbol of decades-long animosity between Tehran and Washington.

Strikes also hit steel complexes in central and southwest Iran, according to Iranian media, causing “significant damage and destruction”.

The Israeli military confirmed it had carried out the strikes and said it had also intercepted an Iranian missile attack, which medics said wounded 14 people, including an 11-year-old girl.

Israel also said its air defences responded to a missile fired from Yemen -- the third attack by Iran-backed Houthi rebels since they entered the war over the weekend.

Thousands of people have been killed across the region during the conflict, which has displaced millions more.

In Lebanon, seven people were killed in strikes around south Beirut, the health ministry said yesterday, while the Israeli military said it had killed Yousef Hashem, Hezbollah’s top commander for Iraq military affairs.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said the country’s military would occupy a swathe of southern Lebanon even after the current war against Hezbollah ends.