US President Donald Trump indicated in an interview with NBC News on Tuesday that the war in Iran could soon be over.
“We’re doing great. And it’s coming to an end," the President said.
Earlier, Trump told the New York Post that the war against the Iranian regime will not "last much longer" and said that the US is "obliterating" Iran's forces.
“We’re not going to be there too much longer. We’re obliterating the s-t out of them right now, it’s a total obliteration," Trump said. “But we won’t have to be there much longer - but we have more work to do in terms of killing their offensive, whatever offensive capability they have left."
When asked about the Strait of Hormuz, Trump stated that he expects the shipping lane "automatically reopen" with the end of the war and that "the countries that are using the strait, let them go and open it."
On Monday, administration officials told The Wall Street Journal that Trump had indicated to aides he is willing to end the military campaign against Iran even if the Strait of Hormuz remains largely closed.
In recent days, Trump and his aides assessed that a mission to pry open the chokepoint would push the conflict beyond his timeline of four to six weeks, according to the report. He decided that the US should achieve its main goals of hobbling Iran’s navy and its missile stocks and wind down current hostilities while pressuring Tehran diplomatically to resume the free flow of trade.
If that fails, Washington would press allies in Europe and the Gulf to take the lead on reopening the strait, the officials said.