US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the US will be “out of Iran pretty quickly” and could return for “spot hits” if needed. He also reiterated that he is “absolutely” considering an attempt to withdraw the US from NATO.
Answering when the US would consider the Iran war over, Trump told Reuters, “I can’t tell you exactly …. we’re going to be out pretty quickly.”
Trump said that US action in the region has ensured that Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. “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,” Trump said.
The Republican leader’s comments come hours before his address to Americans on the state of war.
Earlier in the day, Trump said that Iran’s president, whom he called “much less radicalised” and “far more intelligent” than his predecessors, wants a ceasefire. He claimed that a ceasefire would only happen when the Strait of Hormuz is “open, free, clear”.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addressed the situation in the Strait of Hormuz and said that the waterway lied within the territorial waters of Iran and Oman and was subject to strategic use.
“Only for the ships of those who are at war with us, this strait is closed. That is normal during war – we cannot let our enemies use our territorial waters for commerce,” he told Press TV.
He said that a few countries had negotiated with Iran on the use of the Hormuz Strait, and other ships have decided not to use it because of high insurance prices and security concerns.
Speaking earlier to Al Jazeera, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi signalled Tehran’s willingness to keep fighting. “You cannot speak to the people of Iran in the language of threats and deadlines,” he said. “We do not set any deadline for defending ourselves.”
Since the war began on February 28, Trump has offered shifting objectives and repeatedly has said it could be over soon while also threatening to widen the conflict. Thousands of additional US troops are currently heading to the Middle East, and speculation abounds about the purpose of their deployment.
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