President Donald Trump said at a press conference on Monday that the war against Iran will end “soon” and that oil prices will fall.
Trump’s rosy prediction came after a weekend that saw oil prices top $100 per barrel and roil global financial markets.
“We are making major strides toward completing our military mission,” Trump said on February 28, nine days after launching a war against Iran.
Trump, who briefed his deputies on the purpose of the war, did not explain his end game on Monday, but instead proposed military success.
“We have completely destroyed every force in Iran,” the president said at his Trump National Doral Club near Miami, where he destroyed more than 50 Iranian naval vessels and destroyed its air force and anti-aircraft defenses.
“They have no leadership. Everything is blown up.”
Asked whether the war would end this week, Trump said “no” but “very soon.” He threatened further military action if deemed necessary, and the US has yet to hit some of Iran’s most sensitive targets, including its power infrastructure.
Earlier on Monday, an Iranian official indicated that any oil tanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz would be at risk of attack from Iran, a major chokepoint for crude oil shipments. Only a handful of commercial ships are moving through the strait, said Matt Smith, oil analyst at energy consultancy Kpler.
Despite that threat, Trump said oil supplies would be more secure for the world in the long run because of the war, and threatened to make Iran more vulnerable if crude was withheld from the market. While most of the oil moving through the Strait of Hormuz is bound for Asia, the US relies on global supplies imported from Asia.
“We’re going to hit them so hard that it’s not going to be possible for them or anybody else to recover that part of the world,” Trump said.
He said the war will end when Iran no longer has the ability to use weapons against the US, Israel and other allies.
Asked by a reporter to explain the difference between the prediction of a quick end to the war and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s recent comments, Trump said both could be true.
“This is the beginning of building a new country,” Trump said. He has vowed to keep the US out of another protracted entanglement in the Middle East.
Trump said he was “disappointed” that Iran’s Mojtaba Khamenei had been chosen to succeed his father as the country’s supreme leader. However, when questioned in a press conference, he refused to say that he was trying to kill him.
Trump spoke earlier Monday with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who reportedly shared proposals for a quick end to the U.S. war.
In his press conference, Trump said that Putin was very impressed with what he saw the US doing in Iran.
“It’s a vacation that a lot of people don’t do,” Trump said. “It’s a military success, the likes of which people don’t see.”
–Spencer Kimball contributed to this report.
(tags to translate)War
