Trump Says Iran War Will End "Very Soon" and Promises Oil Prices Will Fall

Nine days after launching the war on Iran with Israel on February 28, President Donald Trump declared at a press conference at his Trump National Doral Club near Miami that the conflict will end "very soon," though not this week. Oil had surged above $100 per barrel over the weekend, but Trump predicted prices would fall and threatened to hit Iran "so hard" it could never recover if it withheld oil from markets. Trump said the war would end only when Iran no longer had the capacity to use weapons against the U.S., Israel, and allies for a long time. He also expressed disappointment over Iran's appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader and said he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who reportedly shared proposals for quickly ending the conflict.