WASHINGTON, March 31 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the U.S. could end its military campaign against Iran within two to three weeks.
“We’ll be leaving very soon,” he told reporters in the White House’s Oval Office, adding that the exit could take place “within two weeks, maybe two weeks, maybe three.”
The declaration was Trump’s clearest to date that he intends to soon end a month-long war that has reordered the Middle East, disrupted global energy markets and changed the trajectory of the Republican’s presidency.
Trump added that Tehran does not have to make a deal with Washington to end the conflict.
“Iran doesn’t have to make a deal, no,” he said when asked if successful diplomacy was a prerequisite to the U.S. winding down the conflict. “No, they don’t have to make a deal with me.”
Instead, Trump said, the requirement for winding down the operation was that Iran be “put into the stone ages,” without the ability to soon acquire a nuclear weapon.
“Then we’ll leave,” he said.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Daphne Psaledakis and Michelle Nichols )
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