Trump: Iran war could be over soon, but not this week; oil disruption would trigger harsher strikes

Trump: War with Iran could end soon, but not this week; Oil disruption would lead to tougher strikes The IRGC fights back, insisting it will determine when the war ends; 'Disappointed' US President Mojtaba Khamenei is Iran's new leader: 'This will lead to more of the same problem'; Aides said they are urging Trump to articulate an exit plan from the war. US President Donald Trump said on Monday the war with Iran could end soon, though not this week, but left open the possibility of an escalation in fighting if the Islamic Republic disrupts global oil supplies under its newly elected hardline supreme leader. Oil prices briefly spiked to their highest level since 2022, a day after Iran selected Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his late father as Iran's supreme leader. Investors saw it as a sign that Iran was entering the 10-day war launched by the United States and Israel. But then prices fell and U.S. stocks rose on hopes that the war with Iran won't last much longer. "It will be over soon, and if it starts again, they will be hit even harder," Trump said at a news conference in Florida, after telling lawmakers that the campaign would be a "short-term excursion" from what he said has been gradually improving economic numbers. Asked if “soon” means within a week, Trump responded: “No, but I think soon.” He had previously said at a Republican congressional fundraiser in Florida that “we've already won in many ways, but we haven't won enough.” Hours later, Trump posted on social media: “If Iran does anything to stop the flow of oil within the Strait of Hormuz, the United States of America will hit it TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have hit it so far.” During the press conference, Trump threatened to attack certain electricity production sites in Iran if Tehran disrupts the world's oil supply. "We've left some of the most important objectives for later, in case we need to do so," Trump said. "If we reach [those goals], it will take us many years to rebuild them. [The goals have] to do with electricity production and many other things. We don't intend to do it if we don't have to." "I will not allow a terrorist regime to hold the world hostage and try to stop the planet's oil supply. If Iran does anything to achieve this, it will be hit much harder. I will eliminate those targets... that I mentioned a moment ago." In apparent response to Trump's comments, a spokesman for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said: "Iran will determine when the war will end." Tehran will not allow “not one liter of oil” to be exported from the region if US and Israeli attacks continue, the IRGC spokesman warned. The war has blocked important supplies of oil and gas to world markets and driven up fuel prices across the United States. The fighting has also prompted foreigners to flee shopping malls and led millions to seek shelter as bombs fell on military bases, government buildings, oil and water facilities, hotels and at least one school. Trump also had a call Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the war and other issues. Putin's foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said Putin "expressed some ideas about a quick political and diplomatic solution" to the conflict following his talks with Gulf leaders and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Khamenei, a reserved 56-year-old cleric, is only the third supreme leader in the history of the Islamic Republic. He has close ties to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which has been firing missiles and drones at Israel and the Gulf Arab states since his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had ruled since 1989, was killed during the first salvo of the war. Thousands of people filled a central square in the capital, Tehran, and other places in a