President Donald Trump has held his first press conference since the start of the war with Iran. He told CBS that he believes the war could be over soon.
“I think the war is very complete, pretty much. They have no navy, no communications, they’ve got no Air Force,” Trump said, claiming that the campaign is “very far” ahead of his previous estimate of a war spanning four to five weeks.
During the press conference held in Florida, Trump described the conflict as “just an excursion into something that had to be done,” adding: “We are getting very close to finishing it”.
Asked if the war would end this week, Trump said, “No,” but added, “Very soon.”
He said that Iran had lost “two levels of its leadership,” adding: “It’s going to be ended soon. And if it starts up again they’ll be hit even harder.”
He also claimed that Iran had been “trying to take over the Middle East” before the US intervention to curtail their military capabilities. As fuel prices continue to rise, Trump said that the region, as well as the passage of the world’s oil supplies, would benefit in the wake of the conflict.
He predicted that oil prices, which have surged to above $100 per barrel due to fears that the Strait of Hormuz would remain effectively closed, will fall.
“We’re achieving major strides toward completing our military objective,” Trump said nine days after the war began.
“We’ve wiped every single force in Iran out, very completely,” the president said while speaking his Trump National Doral club near Miami.
“They have no leadership. It’s all been blown up,” he said, referring to the destruction of more than 50 Iranian naval ships.
More than 1,300 people had already been killed in U.S. and Israeli strikes in Iran as fighting enters into its 10th day, the Iranian ambassador to the UN said on Monday.
CHANGE IN LEADERSHIP IN IRAN DOES NOT ALTER POLITICAL REGIME
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, speaking to journalists at the UN on Monday, said that the change in leadership in Iran does not alter the political regime in the country.
He said that Iran’s new leader Mojtaba Khamenei also shares the same radical views as his father, Ali Khamenei.
Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told reporters: “For us nothing has changed,” after Iran’s Assembly of Experts appointed late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba, as his successor.
“Changing the man at the top does not change the regime,” he said, adding that he hoped the Iranian people will soon have the chance to rise up against the regime.
POPE LEO ‘PRAYS FOR SWIFT END TO HOSTILITIES’
It comes after Pope Leo XIV expressed his sorrow over the death of a Maronite Catholic priest in Southern Lebanon on Monday, who reportedly refused to abandon his parish.
“Pope Leo XIV expresses his profound sorrow for all the victims of the bombings in the Middle East these past few days, for the many innocent people, including numerous children, and for those who were helping them, such as Father Pierre El-Rahi, a Maronite priest killed this afternoon in Qlayaa,” a statement released by the Holy See Press Office reads.
A message from the Vatican said that the pontiff is “following the events with concern and prays for a swift end to all hostilities.”
It is understood that Eli Rali, a Maronite parish priest in the South of the country, died in a bombing while going to the aid of a parishioner who had been wounded in an earlier attack, according to a Franciscan of the Custody of the Holy Land, who spoke with Vatican media.
According to reports, attacks in Lebanon have left 400 people dead, including two Israeli soldiers.