US president Donald Trump today ruled out the Middle East conflict ending this week, limiting himself to reiterating that it will end “soon.”
“I don’t think so [that the war ends this week], but it will be soon. It won’t be long before we have a much safer world,” Trump replied at the White House when asked by reporters about the duration of the conflict begun on February 28, which has caused major disruptions to global energy markets.
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Trump reiterated that the ongoing military operation — named “Epic Fury” by the Pentagon — has decimated Iran’s navy, air force and even its leadership. “In just two weeks, we decimated them. They no longer have a navy; they no longer have an air force. They have no leadership. Their ruling elite has disappeared,” he emphasised.
Insisting on the necessity of the offensive to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon, Trump argued that the American strike “prevented a Third World War.” “I had an obligation to do it. I didn’t want to do it. If we hadn’t acted, a war would have started from which absolutely nothing would have survived,” the US president argued.
The Trump administration says the objective of the offensive is to destroy Iran’s missile programme and its capacity to manufacture a nuclear weapon, but has not presented a clear timeline or defined the duration of the conflict, which was initially estimated at four to five weeks. Last week, Trump had already declared the war is “practically over” because Iran’s military capabilities are at a minimum.
