Trump says US will leave Iran in ‘two or three weeks’
Trump said on Tuesday US forces would end operations in Iran “very soon,” suggesting a timeline of two to three weeks. After his usual claims about “regime change” and how much of Iran’s capabilities the US has “knocked out”, Trump said:
Now we’re finishing the job. I think in two weeks or maybe a few days longer, we’ll do the job. We want to knock out everything they’ve got.
He has previously given vague and mixed messages about the US’s aims and timeline for the war.
Asked by a reporter how he was going to bring oil prices back down, Trump answered:
All I have to do is leave Iran – and we’ll be doing that very soon.
Then prices will “come tumbling down”, he said.
Trump also told reporters that the responsibility for keeping the strait of Hormuz open will rest with countries that rely on it. “That’s not for us … That’ll be for whoever’s using the strait.”
Key events
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Tuesday Washington could see “the finish line” in the Iran war, now in its fifth week.
“We can see the finish line. It’s not today, it’s not tomorrow, but it is coming,” Rubio told Fox News Channel’s “Hannity” show.
Argentina has designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization, its presidential office said in a statement on Tuesday.
A tanker was hit by an unknown projectile about 17 nautical miles north of Qatar’s Doha, causing damage to the hull above the waterline, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said on Wednesday, adding that the vessel’s crew were safe.
There is no environmental impact, UKMTO added
Japan’s Nikkei index climbed more than three percent and South Korea’s Kospi was up nearly five percent in early trade on Wednesday, after Trump indicated that the war with Iran may be over in around two weeks, reports Reuters.
The Nikkei 225 jumped 3.29% to 52,742.62, and the Kospi rose 4.83% to 5,296.29 points.
Saudi Arabia has said it intercepted and destroyed two drones in the last few hours.
A Gulf ally of the United States , the country has been targeted by Iran repeatedly. This week, more than two dozen American service members were injured in missile and drone attacks on a Saudi air base.
Donald Trump will provide an update on the Iran war in an address to the nation at 9pm EST on Wednesday (0100 GMT on Thursday), White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt has announced.
Israeli strikes in southern Beirut and a nearby area have killed seven people, Lebanon’s health ministry has announced.
“The Israeli enemy’s raid on the Jnah area in Beirut has, according to an initial toll, resulted in five martyrs and 21 others wounded,” a ministry statement said, referring to an area in the Lebanese capital’s south.
Another strike that hit a vehicle in Khaldeh, just south of the capital, killed two people and wounded three, the ministry of health said in another statement.
More on that Reuters/Ipsos poll looking at American’s views on the war in Iran: a total of 60% of respondents said they disapproved of US military strikes on Iran, while 35% approved in the survey of 1,021 people.
One of the war’s most visible effects in the US has been the rising cost of petrol, which rose above $4 a gallon on Monday for the first time in more than three years.
Two in three respondents said they expected petrol prices to worsen over the next year, including 40% of Republicans.
Trump’s Republicans face voters in November for midterm elections that will decide whether they can hold onto slim majorities in the House and Senate. The incumbent president’s party tends to lose seats in Congress in midterm elections.
More than half of respondents thought the conflict would have a mostly negative impact on their personal financial situation, including 39% of Republicans surveyed.
Two-thirds of Americans believe that the US should work to end its involvement in the Iran war quickly, even if that means not achieving the goals set out by the Trump administration, a Reuters/Ipsos poll has found.
Around 66% of respondents to the poll, conducted Friday through Sunday, voiced that view, while 27% said the US should work to achieve all its goals in Iran, even if the conflict goes on for an extended period. Six percent did not answer the question.
Among Trump’s Republican party, 40% supported ending the conflict quickly even if it did not achieve US goals, while 57% supported a longer involvement. The month-long war has spread across the Middle East, killing thousands of people and has hit the global economy with soaring energy prices, fuelling global inflation fears.
Thousands of additional US troops are heading to the Middle East. The aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush deployed Tuesday and is slated to travel to the region along with three destroyers, two US officials said. The carrier strike group consists of more than 6,000 sailors.
It comes as thousands of soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division also have begun arriving in the Middle East, according to two other US officials.
While the majority of those troops are part of a rotation of forces planned before the war, some are among roughly 1,500 paratroopers the Trump administration decided to surge into the region last week.
The Trump administration has not said what those troops will be doing, but the 82nd Airborne is trained to parachute into hostile or contested territory to secure key territory and airfields. A US Navy ship carrying about 2,500 Marines recently arrived in the Middle East, and another 2,500 Marines also are being deployed from California.
The extra forces, on top of tens of thousands of service members already in the region, come as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other administration officials have avoided questions about whether or not the military will deploy ground troops against Iran.
“You can’t fight and win a war if you tell your adversary what you are willing to do or what you are not willing to do to include boots on the ground,” Hegseth told reporters on Tuesday.
More on the reports of explosions in Beirut: the Israeli army has said it carried out two separate attacks in the Beirut area.
The IDF said it was targeting “Senior Hezbollah Operatives”.
Explosions have been heard in Beirut’s southern suburbs, the AFP news agency has reported.
An AFP correspondent saw a column of smoke rising from the Jnah district after three large explosions were heard across the city and saw ambulances headed towards the site.
Local media footage showed several cars burning after the strikes in front of a building under construction.
State media also reported that an Israeli airstrike hit a car on a key road south of Beirut.
Donald Trump has reiterated that securing the Strait of Hormuz is “not for us”, as he took further questions from journalists.
Trump said the US “will not have anything to do with” what happens in the strait, instead telling reporters that the responsibility for keeping the vital waterway open will rest with countries that rely on it.
The president said there’s “no reason for us to do this.”
That’s not for us. That’ll be for France. That’ll be for whoever’s using the strait.”
Earlier today the president lashed out at US allies for not doing more to support American efforts in the Iran war.
Trump says US will leave Iran in ‘two or three weeks’
Trump said on Tuesday US forces would end operations in Iran “very soon,” suggesting a timeline of two to three weeks. After his usual claims about “regime change” and how much of Iran’s capabilities the US has “knocked out”, Trump said:
Now we’re finishing the job. I think in two weeks or maybe a few days longer, we’ll do the job. We want to knock out everything they’ve got.
He has previously given vague and mixed messages about the US’s aims and timeline for the war.
Asked by a reporter how he was going to bring oil prices back down, Trump answered:
All I have to do is leave Iran – and we’ll be doing that very soon.
Then prices will “come tumbling down”, he said.
Trump also told reporters that the responsibility for keeping the strait of Hormuz open will rest with countries that rely on it. “That’s not for us … That’ll be for whoever’s using the strait.”
Trump says war on Iran ‘coming to an end’
Donald Trump has told NBC News that he believes the war on Iran is “coming to an end”.
“We’re doing great,” he told the outlet in a phone interview earlier. “And it’s coming to an end.”
He repeated his usual claims about how the US has “decimated” Iran’s military, adding:
The people we’re dealing with (in Iran) are much more reasonable and not as radicalised. We will not have an Iran with nuclear weapons … I have to go, I have a war to prosecute.
Trump has repeatedly claimed he has “won” the war. At a press briefing yesterday, his press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the US president still stood by his timeline of four to six weeks, adding: “We’re on day 30, so you do the math.”
The Trump administration has also repeatedly claimed to be speaking with new Iranian leadership (and been consistently dismissive of the new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei). As we reported earlier, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, meanwhile, maintains that no direct talks have taken place, with all messages exchanged with Washington going through his ministry and intermediaries in the region.
Donald Trump is due to sign an executive order at the White House shortly. He often makes remarks and takes questions from reporters at these events, so I’ll be watching and will bring you any key lines here.
In an update on X, Jordan’s armed forces said on Tuesday that it had intercepted and destroyed four Iranian missiles in the past day, and had also responded to 17 reports of falling debris and projectiles.
Israel passes law to give death penalty to Palestinians – podcast
Israel’s parliament has passed a law imposing the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of fatal attacks – a measure sharply criticised as discriminatory by European countries and human rights groups.
After the law passed, the Knesset erupted into cheers and the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, brandished a bottle in celebration.
The law has been decried as “an act of institutionalised discrimination and racist violence against Palestinians” by Israel’s leading rights group.
In today’s edition of The Latest podcast, Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s deputy head of international news, Devika Bhat.
US aware of reports of journalist kidnapped in Baghdad and liaising with FBI
The US state department has said it is aware of reports that a US journalist has been kidnapped in Baghdad and it is liaising with the FBI.
In a post on X, the department’s assistant secretary for global public affairs, Dylan Johnson, said:
The US Department of State is aware of the reported kidnapping of an American journalist in Baghdad, Iraq.
The State Department previously fulfilled our duty to warn this individual of threats against them and we will continue to coordinate with the FBI to ensure their release as quickly as possible.
An individual with ties to the Iranian-aligned militia group Kataib Hizballah believed to be involved in the kidnapping has been taken into custody by Iraqi authorities.
Iraq remains at a Level 4 Travel Advisory and Americans are advised not to travel to Iraq for any reason and to leave Iraq now.
The State Department strongly advise all Americans, including members of the press, to adhere to all travel advisories.
<a href