President Donald Trump on Sunday night said that he’s not ready to declare a U.S. victory in Iran but said that the country’s military has been significantly diminished in light of the two-week-long military campaign.
“No, I’m not going to do that. There’s no reason to,” Trump told reporters as he was speaking with reporters on Air Force One, referring to whether he would declare victory.
“I just say they’re decimated. I think that we’ve done damage to them.”
Trump added that if the United States “left right now, it would take them [Iran] 10 years and more to rebuild, but I’m still not declaring it.”
The military operation, which started on Feb. 28, killed much of Iran’s leadership, including the former supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. Iran responded by firing drones and missiles at countries across the Middle East while saying it is targeting U.S. military assets in the region.
Gulf Arab states, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain, reported new missile or drone attacks after Iran called for the evacuation of three major ports in the United Arab Emirates over the past weekend.
Also on Sunday, Trump said that he has demanded several countries send warships to keep the crucial Strait of Hormuz open, saying his administration is negotiating with countries that are heavily reliant on Middle East crude oil to join a coalition to secure the waterway. The president did not name the countries.
Since the conflict began, oil prices have surged, driving up gas prices for Americans in recent days. Brent crude oil is trading near $105 per barrel on Monday morning, after hovering around $100 per barrel last week.
“I’m demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory, because it is their territory. It’s the place from which they get their energy. And they should come, and they should help us protect it,” the president said aboard Air Force One.
For countries that don’t assist in providing security, Trump suggested that punitive action could be coming soon. With the United States having supported Ukraine in its conflict with Russia, “it’d be real interesting to see which country won’t help us with one small thing: keeping the strait open,” he added.
Later, he said the Chinese regime should also deploy assets to help secure the Strait of Hormuz, which U.S. officials say carries around 20 percent of the world’s oil.
Last week, a statement attributed to the new leader of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei, said that Iran would continue to block the Strait and would persist in attacking other Middle Eastern countries that host U.S. military forces.
Over the weekend, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told CBS News’s “Face the Nation” that no new talks on ending the conflict would be scheduled.
Regarding talks, “there is nothing on the table right now. Everything depends on the future. If any time in the future we decide to enter into negotiation with U.S. or other interlocutors, you know, we may decide what to put on the table,” Araghchi told the outlet on Sunday.
In a post on Truth Social on Monday, Trump announced he’s holding a news conference later in the day at the Trump Kennedy Center in Washington.
