Trump touts gains against Iran but gives no timeline to end war

U.S. President Donald Trump said in a televised speech on Wednesday night that the U.S. military had nearly accomplished its goals in Iran, but offered no clear timeline for ending the monthlong war and vowed to bomb the country back into the "Stone Ages."



Facing a war-wary American public, sliding approval ratings and pressure from some allies to outline his war aims in more precise and consistent terms, Trump said the U.S. had destroyed Iran's navy and air force, and crippled its ballistic missile and nuclear programs.



But he declined to lay out a concrete plan to wind down the war, now in its fifth week, beyond saying that the U.S. would finish the job "very fast." "We have all the cards," Trump said from the White House in his first primetime address since the U.S. and Israel launched the war on February 28. "They have none."



He glossed over some major unresolved issues such as the status of Iran's enriched uranium and access through the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for global oil supplies which Iran has effectively closed.



The strait, he said, would open "naturally" once the war ended. Trump's 19-minute address broke little new ground and offered scant reassurance to Americans and U.S. allies who are feeling increasing pain at the gas pump and growing impatience with the war.