US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the war with Iran could end “soon,” claiming there are very few targets left for the United States to strike.
“Little this and that… Any time I want it to end, it will end,” Trump told US publication Axios in an interview.
He also suggested that the military campaign has progressed faster than expected. “The war is going great. We are way ahead of the timetable. We have done more damage than we thought possible, even in the original six-week period,” Trump told Axios.
Trump argued that Iran’s hostility was not limited to Israel or the United States but extended across the Middle East. “They were after the rest of the Middle East. They are paying for 47 years of death and destruction they caused. This is payback. They will not get off that easy,” Trump said.
His remarks come at a time when the US-led military operation appears to have achieved several of its initial goals. However, officials from the United States and Israel say there has been no formal directive about when the conflict will end.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz struck a different tone, saying on Wednesday that the fighting would continue for as long as necessary. He said the war will go on “without any time limit, for as long as necessary, until we achieve all the objectives and decisively win the campaign.”
At the same time, officials from both the US and Israel indicated that preparations are underway for at least two more weeks of strikes targeting sites inside Iran. Trump himself declined to provide a clear timeline for the end of the war.
Concerns also grew on Tuesday after US intelligence suggested that Iran had begun placing naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial global chokepoint for oil shipments.
Officials said the exact number of mines deployed remains unclear, though the current assessment suggests the number is relatively small.
Trump confirmed to Axios that US strikes carried out on Tuesday destroyed 16 Iranian mine-laying boats and disrupted Tehran’s plans in the strategic waterway.
In a video message, CENTCOM commander Admiral Brad Cooper said the US military’s objective is to eliminate Iran’s ability to project power and threaten shipping through the strait.
“US forces continue delivering devastating combat power against the Iranian regime. US combat power is building, Iran’s combat power is declining,” Cooper said on Wednesday, adding that Iranian missile and drone attacks have dropped significantly.
When announcing the first wave of strikes on February 28, Trump outlined several goals for the campaign, including destroying Iran’s missile capabilities, dismantling its missile industry, neutralising the Iranian navy, weakening Iran-backed militant groups in the region, and ensuring that Tehran does not acquire a nuclear weapon.
