US President Donald Trump said on Monday that momentum was building toward ending the war with Iran, declaring the country “militarily, is effectively over,” while leaving open the possibility of new strikes.
At the White House, Trump met with Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, a key mediator in the Iran war. This was his first meeting with a foreign leader since his party suffered massive losses in the midterm elections.
Trump later posted on Truth Social that the two leaders had “an excellent conversation” and that “much was discussed with respect to the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
In the weeks before the midterms, there was widespread speculation that US strikes against Iran would resume shortly afterward.
Yet Trump has played down the prospect of resuming the conflict while leaving the door open to further strikes—a stance he repeated Monday at a White House press briefing.
“Iran, militarily, is effectively over. We’re just keeping it the status quo,” Trump told reporters. “But if we do have to go back in, we are locked and loaded, and ready to go.”
In his social post on Monday, Trump stated that he believed further strikes were “quite unlikely” given that key US allies in the Gulf “would prefer the status quo.”
“We are seeing positive momentum toward an end to this conflict and will ensure that America’s interests are at all times protected,” Trump said.
Meanwhile, Iranian officials voiced defiance in the face of ongoing pressure from Washington.
Mohsen Rezai, the Islamic republic’s top security chief, wrote on X late Monday that the US “flails like a desperate gambler,” advising Washington to “fold your hand.” Stop producing fabricated reports about talks that do not exist.”
Earlier, Tehran’s chief negotiator Mahammad Bagher Ghalibaf asserted on X that Israel was drawing the US further into conflict, adding that “unless Washington abandons the ‘Israel First’ mindset, America and its allies are heading directly toward a dark age.”
According to Iranian authorities, strikes on the ground in Iran which the US military has not publicly acknowledged are continuing.
The provincial deputy governor said on state television that Qeshm, an island in the Strait of Hormuz, was hit overnight from Sunday to Monday.
Trump has admitted that the deeply unpopular war with Iran was at least partly to blame for the Republicans’ defeat, particularly since it has helped drive prices upward in the US economy.
