Trump Says Iran War Almost Over, Rules Out More Troops as Japan Backs Pressure Over Hormuz, Nuclear Threat

U.S. President Donald Trump has said that the Iran war was “almost over,” ruled out deploying more U.S. troops to the region, and claimed U.S. forces had “obliterated” much of Iran’s military capacity, as Japan publicly aligned itself with Washington’s hardening stance by condemning Iran’s attacks on neighboring states and its “de facto or effective closure” of the Strait of Hormuz.

Image Via White House

Speaking at the White House during a bilateral meeting with Japan’s prime minister Sanae Takaichi, Trump said, “The war is almost over,” and argued that Washington had moved faster than expected in degrading Iran’s capabilities. “We’ve obliterated their Navy. We’ve obliterated their just about everything there is to obliterate, including leadership,” he said, adding that “their Navy’s gone, their air force is gone, their anti-aircraft equipment is gone” and that “we’re flying wherever we want.”

Trump said he would not send additional U.S. ground forces into the region. Asked whether he intended to put “U.S. troops or more troops in the region,” he replied, “No, I’m not putting troops anywhere,” though he added that the United States would do “whatever is necessary to keep the price as low” in energy markets.

He framed the intervention as a strategic decision taken despite the risk of higher oil prices. “I saw what was happening in Iran and I said, I hate to make this excursion, but we’re going to have to do it,” Trump said, adding that he had expected the economic fallout to be worse. “When it’s completed, we’re going to have a much safer world,” he said, describing Iran as “a serious threat to the world, to the Middle East and to the world.”

Trump also said he had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about attacks on Iran’s oil and gas sector. “I told him, ‘Don’t do that,’ and he won’t do that,” Trump said when asked whether he had discussed striking oil and gas fields. He added that while U.S.-Israeli action was “coordinated,” “on occasion, he’ll do something and if I don’t like it,” implying Washington had sought to draw limits around further escalation in energy infrastructure targeting.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had not misled U.S. President Donald Trump about the war with Iran, declaring at a Thursday news conference, “I misled no one,” and insisting he had not needed to persuade Trump of the need to stop Iran from advancing a nuclear programme he said could be placed underground and paired with nuclear-tipped missiles; Netanyahu also expressed condolences over the toll on U.S. troops, described rising fuel prices as a temporary “spike” he expected would ease, said he believed the United States would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and added that Israel would refrain from any further attacks on Iran’s giant natural gas field at Trump’s request.

The U.S. president’s remarks were reinforced by senior administration officials at the meeting. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Washington was seeing “defections at all levels” in Iran as officials sensed “what’s going on with the regime,” while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iranian missile launches and one-way drone attacks were “down over 90% since the beginning.” Hegseth said the U.S. was also targeting Iran’s defense industrial base to ensure that “even if they wanted to rebuild more launchers or more missiles, they couldn’t in the future.”

Japan, for its part, used the meeting to sharply underline its own concerns about the conflict’s military and economic consequences. The Japanese prime minister Sanae Takaichi said the world was facing “a very severe security environment” and that the global economy was “about to experience a huge hit because of this development.” She said Japan believed “Iran’s development of nuclear weapons must never be allowed,” and added that Tokyo “condemns Iran’s actions such as attacking the neighboring region and also the de facto or effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz.”

Sanae Takaichi said Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya had been in direct contact with his Iranian counterpart and had urged Iran to stop such actions. The Japanese leader also said he had brought “specific proposals to calm down the global energy market,” signaling that energy security and supply stabilization had become central to Tokyo’s diplomacy as the conflict widened.

Trump, pressing allies to shoulder more of the burden of securing Hormuz, said Japan had strong reasons to “step up” because it gets “more than 90% of their oil through the straight.” He contrasted that with the United States, saying Washington gets “practically” none of its oil through Hormuz and arguing that America was “defending the straight for everybody else.” He also criticized NATO allies for not doing more before the conflict reached its current stage, saying some now wanted to send support “after the war is won.”

The Japanese prime minister said she was prepared “to reach out to many of the partners in the international community” to help achieve peace, while Trump suggested that partner support was rising as the scale of the conflict and the vulnerability of Hormuz became clearer.

As IndianRepublic.in has reported earlier, the conflict has evolved into a multi-domain war in which the Strait of Hormuz is no longer just a maritime chokepoint but the central pressure point linking battlefield escalation to oil prices, LNG supply risks and wider economic disruption. This White House exchange showed both Washington and Tokyo placing Hormuz, Iran’s nuclear trajectory and the stability of global energy markets at the center of their public messaging.

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