President Donald Trump indicated for the first time Monday thatUS military operationsin Iran could be coming to an end, saying the war was “very complete” and progressing ahead of schedule.
The war had sent stock markets slumping and oil prices soaring again on Monday as Tehran, under new leader Mojtaba Khamenei, fired a new barrage of missiles at its Gulf neighbours and signalled that the strategic Strait of Hormuz would likely remain closed.
But Wall Street vaulted into positive territory Monday after Trump’s remarks, despite the lack of details on any solution to the conflict still raging in the Middle East.
“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 by phone, repeating battle damage assessments that he has given in previous days.
Trump told the US broadcaster that the United States was “very far” ahead of his initially stated timeframe for the war of four or five weeks.
He is set to give a press conference shortly at around 5:30 pm (2130 GMT) in the ballroom of his Doral golf club nearMiami.
On the first day in power for the 56-year-old son of slain leader Ali Khamenei, Iranian troops mustered a fresh wave of missile and drone attacks on Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Israel.
Another missile was also fired at NATO member Turkey, the second such incident in five days, with the alliance’s air defences intercepting it before it could hit its target.
With the Strait of Hormuz off Iran blocked for almost all oil tankers, the price of benchmark crude oil contracts rocketed past $100 a barrel on Monday — their highest levels since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — before edging back slightly.
French President EmmanuelMacronsaid that his country and its allies were working on a “purely defensive” mission to reopen the strait, through which nearly 20 percent of the world’s crude oil usually transits.
Source: Insider Paper
