President Donald Trump predicted Thursday that the war with Iran will end “pretty soon,” saying Tehran cannot sustain the conflict much longer as he revealed that he is personally involved in negotiations toward a potential agreement over the Strait of Hormuz.
“I think it’s going to end pretty soon,” Trump told reporters during an Oval Office event. “I don’t think they can go much longer.”
Trump made the prediction while defending the U.S.-led military campaign against Iran, which he said was necessary to prevent the Islamic Republic from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
“They can’t have a nuclear weapon, otherwise the whole world would get blown up,” Trump said. “We’re not gonna let that happen. Not only us, not only the Middle East, the whole world would have been — it would have been catastrophic. We had no choice.”
Asked whether an agreement had been reached to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Trump stopped short of announcing a breakthrough.
“Well, I don’t want to say it has been,” he said. “It’s sort of open right now. You know, we have a thing called the blockade headed up by the U.S. Navy, and we control it.”
Trump cautioned that Iran could still disrupt commercial traffic through attacks or naval mines.
“They can always shoot something, they always have something, or drop a mine,” he said. “And if you have one mine sitting out there, you sort of mess things up because people don’t want to take their billion-dollar boats and accidentally get hit by a mine.”
Still, Trump expressed confidence in the negotiations and said he is directly involved in the effort.
“But I think we’re doing very well,” he said. “I’m involved in the negotiation. I think we’re doing fine. It could be soon.”
Iran and Oman have spent weeks negotiating arrangements governing commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, with officials from both countries indicating this week that they are close to finalizing a framework.
The proposed arrangement would reportedly establish new routes for vessels transiting the strategic waterway, though significant questions remain over Iran’s demand for a role in managing traffic, possible fees on commercial vessels, and Tehran’s insistence that the U.S. end its blockade before the strait fully reopens.
Iranian officials have also sought to distinguish the talks with Oman from direct negotiations with Washington. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf mocked Trump’s combination of military threats and diplomacy Thursday as “theater diplomacy on loop.”
“‘Massive attack coming… wait, never mind, they want to negotiate.’ That’s theater diplomacy on loop,” Ghalibaf wrote on X.
“Using bullying + broken promises + fake news as leverage is a failed strategy,” he added. “Acknowledge the facts and fulfill your commitments. We don’t need more theater.”
The U.S. has meanwhile continued enforcing its blockade against Iran while negotiations proceed. U.S. Central Command said Thursday that American forces have redirected 49 commercial vessels, disabled two and boarded two since the blockade was reinstated.
Trump’s optimism Thursday followed several days of increasingly intense diplomacy after he called off what he has described as potentially the “biggest attack since World War II,” saying Iran and other countries in the region had sought additional time for negotiations.
Speaking in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Trump said the United States had been prepared to launch the attack before Iran sought talks.
“They called me, and they said, ‘Please don’t do it, let’s talk,’” Trump said. “I’d rather make a deal because I don’t want to kill people.”
Trump also addressed reports Thursday that months of fighting have depleted portions of the U.S. munitions stockpile, maintaining that the military remains well supplied while acknowledging that inventories of some weapons are tighter than others.
“We have certain types of munitions that are very powerful, that we have unlimited — virtual unlimited supply,” Trump said. “We have others where it’s a little bit tighter, and we’re getting them in on a daily basis.”
“We’re in great shape,” he added. “But with that being said, we always want more. We have to have more.”
Earlier Thursday, Trump pushed back more forcefully against reports of shortages on Truth Social, saying the United States has “massive amounts” of munitions and that large quantities are being manufactured and delivered.
“The ‘leakers’ of these treasonous statements are being hunted down,” Trump wrote. “Long term jail sentences will be sought!”
Trump separately rejected reports of friction with War Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying he was “extremely happy” with Hegseth’s performance and declaring that the campaign against Iran, which he said had been “decimated for the purpose of NOT ALLOWING IT TO EVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON,” was “going very well.”
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein