Trump says Iran war will be over ‘pretty quickly’

U.S. President Donald Trump has said that the war in Iran will “be over pretty quickly.” Addressing House Republicans attending a legislative retreat in Florida on Monday, Trump claimed that Iran would have attacked the U.S. “within a week” if the United States had not started the campaign.

“Within a week they were going to attack us 100%. They were ready. They had all these missiles far more than anyone thought, and they were going to attack us, but they were going to attack all of the Middle East and Israel. And if they had a nuclear weapon, they would have used it on Israel. And this was going to be a major attack. I know they had all of those missile sites and all those launchers that we got rid of, about 80% of them right now, by the way, got rid of most of the, you know, see, it’s died down to a trickle. They have very few launches left.”

Trump continued by saying the U.S. military had been “amazing”.

“And the missiles have been largely knocked out. the drones have been knocked down, and we’re hitting where they make the drones,” Trump said.

“We know them all, and we’re knocking the hell out of that. Now, where they manufacture the drones. A lot of work, a lot of brilliant work. But we’re going to have a much safer world as soon as it’s finished, and it’s going to be finished pretty quickly.”

Trump then told CBS News he thinks the war against Iran “is very complete” and that Washington was “very far ahead” ‌of his initial four to five week estimated time frame.

“I think the war is very complete, pretty much. They have no navy, no communications, they’ve got no Air Force,” Trump told CBS News.

When asked about ⁠the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said that ships are moving through now, but he is “thinking about taking it over.”

After Trump’s statement, Reuters reported that oil prices fell on Tuesday after hitting an over three-year high in ‌the prior session. Brent futures fell $4.17, or 4.2%, to $94.79 a barrel at 0345 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down $3.81, or 4%, to $90.96 a barrel. Both the contracts fell as much as 11% earlier before paring some losses.

The U.S. and Israel launched what they described as a pre-emptive strike against Iran on February 28, claiming that Tehran was developing a nuclear weapon and posing a threat—an allegation Iran has denied. In response, Iran launched counterattacks, firing missiles and drones at Israel, as well as at U.S. assets and other targets across the Middle East.