Washington: US President Donald Trump has said the conflict with Iran will end “very soon” and predicted a sharp fall in global oil prices once the war is over, while reiterating that Tehran will never be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon.
Speaking at a Republican campaign rally in San Antonio, Texas, Trump defended the US military operation against Iran and said his administration remained determined to eliminate what he described as the nuclear threat posed by Tehran.
“And just as I promised, I am ensuring that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. They will never. They know that,” Trump told supporters.
Trump suggested that US involvement in the conflict was nearing its end and said oil prices would fall sharply once American forces were out of the conflict.
“And we’ll be out of there soon, and you watch those oil prices come down like a rock and watch everything — everything else is coming down,” he said.
Trump says Iran conflict will end soon
The US President argued that previous administrations had failed to address Iran’s nuclear ambitions and said military action had eventually become necessary.
“That should have been done by past presidents for many years. It should have been done, but nobody wanted to take it on,” Trump said.
Trump acknowledged that the conflict had affected oil prices but maintained that the increase had been smaller than many had expected. He said some had predicted prices would rise threefold, fourfold or even fivefold because of the military operation.
At a separate event at the White House, Trump again said the conflict would end soon.
“Oil will drop like a rock as soon as we’re finished with the war, which will be very soon,” he said.
“It’s going to be very soon. One way or the other, we’ll be finished with it,” he added.
Bessent links energy shock to inflation
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also linked higher borrowing costs and inflation to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
“What we are seeing is headline inflation is high because of the energy shock,” Bessent said.
He said underlying inflation had eased and predicted that energy supplies would improve once the conflict ended.
“So once we get on the other side of this Iran conflict, energy markets are going to be well supplied, and we will move down towards the Fed’s target and mortgage rates and the 10-year will come back down,” Bessent said.
Trump refers to Iran negotiations
Trump also referred to diplomatic contacts involving his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who has been involved in negotiations concerning Iran.
“He’s working on the Iran deal and doing very well,” Trump said.
However, Trump indicated that he remained reluctant to accept an agreement solely to bring the confrontation to an end.
“I think the deal isn’t really something that I want to do, but they’re willing to offer us anything to stop, and we definitely, they will never have a nuclear weapon,” he said.