United States President Donald Trump has offered his latest prediction for concluding the war in Iran, indicating that an end date could come after the upcoming US midterm elections.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis war will end immediately after our election,\u201d Trump told reporters on Wednesday before boarding Air Force One for a trip to Dallas, Texas.<\/p>\n
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Trump claimed the Iranian government was stalling an end to the war in order to secure a more favourable political environment in the US.<\/p>\n
The Democratic Party is angling to take control of one or both chambers of Congress in the November 3 midterms. Currently, Trump\u2019s Republican Party maintains slim majorities in both.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re desperate to try and affect the election so that we can get a nice, weak group of people in there,\u201d Trump said of Iran\u2019s strategy for the legislative elections.<\/p>\n
He suggested that Iran is counting on Democrats to \u201cleave them alone and let them have their nuclear weapon\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll they want is a nuclear weapon, and if they had a nuclear weapon, the whole world is in deep trouble,\u201d Trump said of Iran.<\/p>\n
\u2018More than a nuclear deal\u2019<\/p>\n
When the war against Iran began on February 28, the country\u2019s nuclear programme was a key justification that the US and Israel cited for launching hostilities. Trump and his officials claimed that Iran posed an \u201cimminent\u201d threat to the US and its allies.<\/p>\n
Iran, however, has long denied seeking a nuclear weapon, instead arguing its uranium enrichment is for civilian power purposes only.<\/p>\n
US intelligence reports have also cast doubt on whether Iran was building a nuclear weapon, though concerns have been raised over its levels of enrichment.<\/p>\n
Negotiations about Iran\u2019s nuclear energy programme were ongoing at the time of the war\u2019s launch, and the issue has repeatedly cropped up in ceasefire negotiations in the six months since.<\/p>\n
Trump had previously withdrawn from a 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), that would have restricted the amount of uranium Iran was allowed to enrich.<\/p>\n
When asked on Wednesday whether the US would restart talks with Iranians on a nuclear agreement, the president suggested his ambitions were larger.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m doing much more than a nuclear deal. There\u2019s a lot more than nuclear,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
But he also indicated that negotiations with Iran were not a top priority for the US government.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not looking for it, to be honest,\u201d Trump said. \u201cOriginally, I wanted to make a deal. We\u2019re so far down the line. They have very little country left right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
More US strikes to come<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s comments follow remarks from US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who told ABC News on Sunday \u201cthere may not\u201d be a nuclear deal.<\/p>\n
Wright suggested instead that the US may continue to launch strikes to weaken Iran\u2019s\u00a0nuclear infrastructure.<\/p>\n