Trump tells Fox News the US will win the war with Iran ‘very soon’

US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he believes the United States will win the war with Iran ‘very soon’, while repeating that the ‘key’ to any outcome is that Tehran never possess a nuclear weapon. The remarks were made in an interview with the Fox News channel during the Presidents Cup golf tournament at the Medinah club near Chicago, as Fox News itself reports.

‘I think what’s going to happen is we’re going to win the war very soon,’ Trump told Fox News journalist Aishah Hasnie, adding that he believes oil prices will fall to pre-war levels as soon as the war ends. He said the United States is succeeding ‘both militarily and economically’ — through economic pressure and military action against Iran.

Asked whether a return to military strikes is on the table, Trump did not rule it out: ‘It’s possible, but I just don’t want to say that.’ The statement comes just one day after he publicly rejected the Iranian proposal for a seven-day ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, calling it ‘unacceptable’, as Al Jazeera’s live blog on the Iran war reports.

The interview took place at a sensitive moment: the war is entering its eighth month and high fuel prices have turned the conflict into one of the central issues of the campaign ahead of the November 3 midterm elections in the US. Trump once again repeated his red line: ‘The key is that Iran will not possess a nuclear weapon’ — a condition he has set since the beginning of the conflict.

On the other hand, Tehran has insisted that its proposal to reopen Hormuz within seven days — in exchange for lifting the US blockade and releasing frozen assets — remains on the table, and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said that Iran is ready even for ‘the final war’, but prefers diplomacy, as NBC reported in its interview.