Trump says Iran war is ‘militarily effectively over’ at snap news conference

Washington: US President Donald Trump said the Iran war was “effectively over” in remarks that suggest a resumption of major combat operations is unlikely, despite rampant speculation about renewed bombing following the midterm elections.

In a snap news conference where he was joined by Ultimate Fighting Championship boss Dana White, Trump defended the eight-month-old war and his embattled Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who now faces an impeachment resolution in Congress.

“Iran, militarily, is effectively over,” Trump said. “We’re just keeping it the status quo. We’re doing that really at the behest of countries that are their neighbours.

“It’s a failing country, it’s got 301 per cent inflation,” he said, without offering evidence. “It’s got problems like you don’t want to even think about. They’re not paying their military, they’re not paying their [Revolutionary] Guard, their navy is gone, their air force is gone.

“At the conclusion of the military engagement, the American people and the people of the world will be far safer and more secure than they’ve been in many, many years.

“That war was started in 1979. We didn’t start the war, they did … I don’t guarantee anything. But if we do have to go back in, we are locked and loaded and ready to go.”

The president made the remarks shortly after a meeting at the White House on Monday (US time) with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, a key US partner in the region.

Trump has made similar statements in numerous interviews and news conferences. But Monday’s comments were more definitive and appeared to dispel the notion that a fresh wave of strikes – a “final blow”, as some have described it – is under serious consideration.

In an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday, Trump said the US could bomb Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain if it needed to, but there had been “very little activity there”.

“It would be done in one hour, it would be taken care of,” he said. The mountain – and the three other Iranian nuclear sites bombed by the US last year – were under constant surveillance, he added.

Other than limited strikes in the Strait of Hormuz, there has been little kinetic action in the war for months.

While shipments of oil through the strait have increased under US Navy protection, a long-term plan for safe, toll-free passage through the strait – without ships being fired upon by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – remains elusive.

In his 60 Minutes interview, Trump acknowledged the unpopular Iran war cost his Republican Party votes at last week’s midterm elections, where they lost control of both chambers of Congress.

“They didn’t like that [the price of] gasoline went up,” he said. “There’s a great dislike, incredibly, for Israel ... You have that, you have the war itself, you have the gas prices.”

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