United States President Donald Trump says he is considering “winding down” the military operations in Iran even as his administration deploys 2,500 additional marines to the region and asks Congress for more money to fund the war.In a social media post on Friday, Trump said the US was “getting very close to meeting our objectives as we consider winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East”.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of listThe mixed messages from Trump came after another climb in oil prices plunged the US stock markets. His administration also announced that it was lifting sanctions on Iranian oil already loaded on ships, a move aimed at wrangling the soaring fuel prices.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, in a post on X shortly after Trump’s message, said “the President and the Pentagon predicted it would take approximately 4-6 weeks to achieve this mission.“Tomorrow [Saturday] marks week 3 – and the US Armed Forces are doing an exceptional job,” Leavitt wrote. “Day by day, the Iranian Regime is being crippled, and their ability to threaten the United States and our allies is being significantly weakened.”Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, said four to six weeks is “the new number coming from the Trump administration about when Operation Epic Fury could possibly end”.“The White House has never been clear since the war began on February 28 about just how long the war was going to take, how many different platforms it would be fought on, and what would be the final metric for the US deciding to declare victory,” she said. Advertis …
