Trump says he is considering ‘winding down’ Iran war

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Sareen Habeshian

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Watch: Trump: Europe, China and Japan need to help with Strait of Hormuz

President Donald Trump has said he is considering “winding down” the Iran war because the US was “getting very close” to meeting its military objectives.

He also said the Strait of Hormuz would have to be guarded by other nations who use it, stating that the US wasn’t one of them.

Energy prices have soared since Iran effectively closed the shipping route after the conflict began last month. Iran’s new supreme leader, meanwhile, said the country had dealt “a dizzying blow” to the enemy.

Trump has previously indicated the war was almost over, only for it to escalate. The White House this week requested $200bn more in funding for the conflict. More troops and warships are being sent to the region.

On Friday afternoon in Washington, Trump told reporters from outside the White House as he prepared to embark for Florida: "I don’t want to do a ceasefire.

“You don’t do a ceasefire when you’re literally obliterating the other side.”

But as he set off to Palm Beach, Trump posted on Truth Social: “We are getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East with respect to the Terrorist Regime of Iran.”

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On the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said it “will have to be guarded and policed, as necessary, by other Nations who use it - The United States does not!”

Earlier in the day he pilloried Nato allies for refusing to help the US reopen the strait, insisting in a Truth Social post that it would be a “simple” military manoeuvre.

“So easy for them to do, with so little risk,” posted the president. “COWARDS, and we will REMEMBER!”

It is not the first time Trump has indicated the war could soon draw to a close.

On 9 March, he told CBS in a phone interview: “I think the war is very complete, pretty much.”

In public remarks in Florida the same day he said the Iran war would be over “pretty quickly”.

However, sources told the BBC’s US partner CBS on Friday that Pentagon officials have made detailed preparations to deploy ground forces into Iran.

The planning includes conversations about how the US would handle the detention of Iranian soldiers if there were American troops in the country, CBS cited two of the officials as saying.

The US military is also preparing to deploy some 2,500 Marines and warships to the region, Reuters news agency reported.

US news outlet Axios reported that the administration was considering plans to occupy or blockade Kharg Island, off the coast of Iran.

The US military has already this month bombed the island, home to a major oil terminal that is considered Iran’s economic lifeline.

“The United States Military can take out Kharg Island at any time,” a White House official told the BBC.

Mark Cancian on what more US troops to the Middle East could mean for war timeline

Speaking to the BBC, retired Colonel Mark Cancian said it could take between a week and 30 days for the extra US troops to arrive in the Middle East.

The senior adviser for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank, said: “So there’s going to be reinforcements, but it’s going to take a while for all of them to get there.”

Oil prices have jumped about 50% since the US and Israel launched military strikes on 28 February.

With a global energy shock looming, the Trump administration said on Friday that it would waive sanctions on Iran to allow the sale of 140m barrels of oil that have been stranded on tankers since the war began.

The soaring prices at the petrol pump are a daily reminder of the war’s cost for Americans, threatening potential political fallout for Trump’s fellow Republicans in November’s congressional elections.

Iran meanwhile launched a new wave of drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabia and Israel.

To mark Nowruz, the Persian New Year, the new Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issued a defiant written statement on Friday.

Khamenei said Iranians have “dealt him [the enemy] a dizzying blow so that he now starts uttering contradictory words and nonsense”.

“At the moment, due to the particular unity that has been created between you our compatriots… the enemy has been defeated,” he added.

Khamenei has not been seen in public since the Israeli attack that killed his father and predecessor Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the war’s first day.

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