By Steve Holland, Alexander Cornwell and Yomna Ehab
WASHINGTON/TEL AVIV/CAIRO, April 1 (Reuters) – The United States will end its war on Iran fairly soon and could return for “spot hits” if needed, President Donald Trump told Reuters on Wednesday, hours before he was scheduled to make a primetime address to the nation.
Trump also said he would state in the speech, which is due at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT on Thursday), that he was considering withdrawing the U.S. from the NATO alliance.
Asked when the United States would consider the Iran war over, Trump said: “I can’t tell you exactly … we’re going to be out pretty quickly.”
He was expected to reiterate a two-to-three-week timetable for ending the war in Iran during the address, a White House official later said.
U.S. action had ensured Iran would not have nuclear arms, Trump said: “They won’t have a nuclear weapon because they are incapable of that now, and then I’ll leave, and I’ll take everybody with me, and if we have to we’ll come back to do spot hits.”
An Iranian official, Mehdi Tabatabai, said in a post on X that an important letter to the American people from Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian would be released “in a few hours”.
TRUMP CONSIDERS QUITTING NATO
Global oil supplies were expected to be hit twice as hard this month as in March, the International Energy Agency said on Wednesday, underlining the urgent need for an end to the conflict Trump began with Israel on February 28.
Trump said separately on social media that Iran had asked for a ceasefire but that he would not consider it until Tehran ceased blocking the Strait of Hormuz, a major fuel shipment route. Iran denied making any such request.
Two security sources from Pakistan, which is mediating in the conflict, earlier told Reuters that Islamabad had proposed a temporary ceasefire to both sides but had not heard back from either.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance communicated with intermediaries from Pakistan about the Iran conflict as recently as Tuesday, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters on Wednesday. At Trump’s direction, Vance signalled privately that Trump was open to a ceasefire as long as certain U.S. demands were met, including reopening the Strait of Hormuz, the source said.
Trump had signalled on Tuesday he could wind down the war in two to three weeks even without a deal, and scaled up threats to pull the U.S. out of the NATO defence alliance if European states did not help stop Iran threatening the waterway.
In his remarks to Reuters on Wednesday, Trump said he would express his disgust with NATO for what he considers the alliance’s lack of support for U.S. objectives in Iran.
European states took pains to appear unruffled and France’s junior army minister Alice Rufo said operations by NATO in the Strait of Hormuz would be a breach of international law.
JET FUEL AND DIESEL SHORTAGE
The conflict has killed thousands, spread across the region and caused unprecedented energy disruption.
IEA head Fatih Birol said the main issue so far from Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz was the lack of jet fuel and diesel that was already a problem in Asia and would hit Europe in April or May.
The head of European budget airline Ryanair said jet fuel supply to Europe could be disrupted from June if the conflict did not end in the next month, potentially forcing the airline and rivals to consider cancelling summer season flights.
Businesses around the world are struggling, with cosmetics and tea among the latest sectors to report difficulties.
However, global stocks rallied and oil prices fell almost 3% as hopes of a de-escalation fuelled the biggest rebound in regional equities in more than three years. [MKTS/GLOB] [O/R]
Higher fuel prices are already weighing on U.S. household finances before the November midterm elections, with two-thirds of Americans believing the U.S. should work to exit the Iran war quickly, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
TANKER HIT OFF QATAR
Drones hit fuel tanks at Kuwait’s international airport, causing a big blaze, and authorities in Bahrain reported a fire at an undisclosed company facility from an Iranian attack.
Qatar said an oil tanker leased to state-owned QatarEnergy was hit by an Iranian cruise missile in Qatari waters, but that there were no injuries or environmental damage.
An overnight strike hit Shahid Haghani Port, Iran’s largest passenger terminal, deputy regional governor Ahmad Nafisi told state media, calling it a “criminal” attack on civilian infrastructure.
Iran has fired repeatedly on Gulf countries, some home to U.S. bases, during the conflict, and is using the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas, as a bargaining chip.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have threatened to hit U.S. companies in the region including Microsoft, Google, Apple, Intel, IBM, Tesla and Boeing, from 8 p.m. Tehran time (1630 GMT) on Wednesday. Trump has said he was not concerned.
LATEST STRIKES
In Tel Aviv on Wednesday, evening air raid sirens and air defence systems were repeatedly triggered as Iran fired a volley of missiles around an hour before the start of Passover, the Jewish festival of freedom.
Israel’s fire and rescue service said there had been multiple “impacts” in the greater Tel Aviv area. It was not immediately clear if the impacts were caused by missile strikes or debris from missile interceptions.
Shortly after the latest Iranian attack, the Israeli military said in a statement that the Air Force was carrying out strikes on dozens of targets across Tehran.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Costas Pitas, Martin Petty, Philippa Fletcher and Keith Weir; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Alison Williams and Alex Richardson)
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