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Donald Trump vowed to hit Iran “extremely hard” over the coming weeks in a primetime television speech that dashed investors’ hopes of an imminent end to the conflict.

The US president insisted Washington would achieve its goals for the war “very shortly”, but signalled further escalation rather than a quick peace deal.

“We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong,” Trump warned in the 19-minute address from the White House.

He also told American allies they would have to “take the lead” in reopening the Strait of Hormuz to oil shipments.

Oil prices jumped as Trump offered little clarity on when and how the war would end, with Brent, the international benchmark, rising about 5 per cent in early Asia trading to $106 a barrel.

Stocks slid with Japan’s Topix share index falling roughly 1.2 per cent while South Korea’s Kospi dropped 3.8 per cent and futures tracking Wall Street’s S&P 500 declined 1 per cent.

John Woods, chief investment officer for Asia at Lombard Odier, said: “The market was hoping for new news around the end of the conflict and sold off when his speech failed to provide a clear sense of closure.”

Trump struck an aggressive tone, renewing his threat to strike Iran’s power stations if the country failed to reach a deal in the coming days. Last week, he issued Tehran a deadline of April 6 to come to an agreement.

US forces would strike “each and every one of their electric-generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously” if there was no deal, he said, adding Washington could target oil facilities as well.

Trump has not ruled out deploying US forces inside Iran, but did not refer to any plan for ground troops in Wednesday’s speech.

Tehran has publicly rejected the 15-point US proposal for a ceasefire, delivered via Pakistani intermediaries. Iran is now demanding guarantees it will not be attacked and reparations as part of any deal.

Trump also hailed the US military’s campaign, which has struck more than 12,300 targets inside Iran in less than five weeks.

“We are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly,” Trump said.

His address comes amid growing opposition to a war that has cost the US billions of dollars, triggering a global energy crisis and raising petrol prices domestically to the highest level in years.

The president’s approval ratings have dropped in polls since the war began, with critics, including some within the president’s party, accusing him of launching an unnecessary conflict without providing clear goals.

Trump urged Americans to “keep this conflict in perspective”, insisting it was not nearly as long as other US wars, and said the hit to the stock market and petrol prices would rapidly reverse when the conflict ended.

Iran’s near closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which about a fifth of the world’s oil flows, has rattled the global economy and hit energy supplies for US allies.

Trump said the US had ample domestic oil supplies and told allies that rely on shipping through the strait, including the UK and France, to take a leading role in its reopening.

The countries of the world that do receive oil through the Hormuz strait must take care of that passage. They must cherish it,” Trump said. “We will be helpful, but they should take the lead in protecting the oil that they so desperately depend on.”

Trump also asserted that the US bombing campaign had so decimated Iran that “it should be easy” for other countries to retake the strait.

“In any event, when this conflict is over, the strait will open up naturally,” he added.

“They are going to want to be able to sell oil because that is all they have to try and rebuild,” Trump said. “It will resume the flowing and the gas prices will rapidly come back down. Stock prices will rapidly go back up.”