US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Washington 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 US 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.

The White House later announced that Trump will deliver a national address at 9am Hong Kong time on Thursday, related to the war against Iran.

"TUNE IN: Tomorrow night at 9PM ET, President Trump will give an Address to the Nation to provide an important update on Iran," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X.

Earlier, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country has the "necessary will" to end the war with the United States and Israel, stressing that Tehran was seeking guarantees the conflict would not flare up again.

He was speaking on Tuesday after a day of heavy strikes on Iran and followed a tough warning from the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The Guards threatened to retaliate against leading US tech firms such as Google, Meta and Apple from Wednesday if more Iranian leaders were killed in "targeted assassinations".

The Guards charged that 18 companies, also including Intel, Tesla and analytics firm Palantir, were complicit in previous killings and warned they "should expect the destruction of their relevant units in exchange for every assassination in Iran".

Pezeshkian, in a phone call with the president of the European Council, said Iran had "the necessary will to end this conflict, provided that essential conditions are met – especially the guarantees required to prevent repetition of the aggression".

Responding to a 15-point US plan to end the war last week, Tehran had put forward a counterproposal demanding a mechanism guaranteeing that Israel and the US would not return to war.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, speaking earlier after he visited US troops in the Middle East, vowed that "the upcoming days will be decisive. Iran knows that, and there's almost nothing they can militarily do about it."

Asked about next steps, Hegseth said that "you can't fight and win a war if you tell your adversary what you are willing to do, or what you are not willing to do, to include boots on the ground".

Meanwhile, Trump again criticised countries that ⁠have not helped the US war effort, such as Britain.

In a social media post, he said that in response to the global fuel shortage, these countries should buy energy from the US or find "some delayed courage, go to the strait and just TAKE IT".

France and Italy have pushed back against some US-Israeli military operations, sources said, highlighting ⁠how divisions between Nato allies have been exposed by the war.

Pope Leo urged Trump on Tuesday to look for an "off-ramp" to the war, in an unusual direct appeal from the pontiff to the president.

"Hopefully he's looking for a way to decrease the amount of violence," the pope told journalists outside his residence near Rome.

Iran has denied Trump's claims of direct talks so far, and has kept firing at Israel and US allies in the Gulf, joined in the regional war by its Lebanese ally Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthi rebels.

Explosions were heard on Tuesday in Dubai, and two people were wounded near the Saudi capital Riyadh when air defences intercepted a drone. Kuwait's state oil company said one of its oil tankers was temporarily on fire off Dubai after a "direct and malicious Iranian attack".

Iran has also maintained its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of global oil normally passes. The average gasoline price at US pumps soared past US$4 a gallon, the highest in nearly four years, while Indonesia announced fuel rationing. The EU urged member states to try to push down domestic demand for fuel.

Israel, meanwhile, kept pounding Lebanon in its war on Hezbollah as it mourned four Israeli soldiers killed in southern Lebanon.

Defence Minister Israel Katz said Israel would occupy a swathe of southern Lebanon even after the end of the war, and that "all the houses in the villages adjacent to the border in Lebanon will be demolished".

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney denounced Israel's deployment of troops in Lebanon as an "illegal invasion". Israeli attacks have killed more than 1,200 people in Lebanon, and over a million have been displaced, Lebanese authorities say. (Agencies)
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Last updated: 2026-04-01 HKT 08:13




Edited by Cecil Wong