Trump says the U.S. has won the Iran war and will decide when it ends, as Tehran denies talks and keeps Hormuz closed

By Lena Marchetti

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said on Veterans Day that the United States has already won its war with Iran and that the only open question is when to end it. Iran’s top security official said there are no negotiations, and that the Strait of Hormuz will stay closed until Washington meets Tehran’s conditions.

“America did not start a war with Iran,” Trump said Wednesday at Arlington National Cemetery, according to CBS News. “Iran has been waging war on America since 1979. This should have been taken care of a long time ago.”

“We fought back. And we seriously fought back. And we won. Just a question of when we want to end it,” the president said. “We want to make sure we have a total victory, not a 93% victory. It’s going to be total. It’ll take them 25 years to rebuild back what we have destroyed, and hopefully we won’t have to destroy any more of that country.”

The war is in its ninth month. For now, the administration is relying on sanctions and a naval blockade of Iranian ports instead of new airstrikes. The cost of the standoff is showing up in places far from the Gulf, including the heating oil tanks of the Northeast.

Washington: pressure instead of new strikes

Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid out that approach Tuesday in Paris, after meeting foreign ministers from the Group of Seven. “The economic campaign is so devastating that right now there is no need for major combat operations,” Rubio said, as reported by Al Jazeera. “That’s what I told our allies here today.”

“We don’t need to conduct military strikes if we’re achieving the same objective through economic means and economic pressure. That’s not stalemate,” Rubio said, according to a separate Al Jazeera analysis. He said Washington is “open to diplomacy” but called Iran’s current demands “totally unrealistic.” “We expect that could change – and if it does, we’re prepared for diplomacy,” he said.

Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social that further strikes were “quite unlikely,” that there appeared to be “positive momentum” toward ending the conflict, and that the United States remained “locked and loaded” if things changed, Al Jazeera reported. After meeting Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, at the White House on Monday, Trump said, “Iran is talking to us, and they’re talking very politely.” Qatar is a key mediator.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Tuesday that U.S. forces struck 13,000 targets over 40 days of combat and destroyed more than 80% of Iran’s nuclear industrial base, CBS News reported. “Their navy sunk, their air force grounded, their defense industrial base gone,” he said. Iran’s Defense Ministry called those “deceptive figures fabricated by Trump and the defeated Pete.” Hegseth has also asked Congress for $350 billion more for the military, as the Chronicle reported Tuesday.

Tehran: no talks, and seven conditions

Iran’s security chief, Mohsen Rezaei, told Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen TV on Tuesday that reports of continuing negotiations or a meeting in Qatar were “a pure lie,” Al Jazeera reported. He said Iran was still waiting for an answer to its seven conditions. “Their initial response was insufficient and deceptive, and we are still waiting for an explicit and clear response,” he said.

Iran has not published the full list. Rezaei and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi have said it includes lifting sanctions and the U.S. blockade and ending fighting on all fronts, especially Israel’s attacks on Lebanon. Araghchi has said Hormuz could reopen within two days if the demands are met.

“The conflict with Iran will not be resolved through military means, nor by intensifying sanctions,” Araghchi told Iran’s state news agency IRNA on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Rezaei said Iran “will not remove even a single particle of enriched nuclear material from the country,” according to state broadcaster IRIB, as cited by CBS News. The administration wants any final deal to include Iran giving up its highly enriched uranium. “Crazy Islamists in Tehran will never ever have a nuclear weapon,” Hegseth said Tuesday.

Rezaei also warned that Iran would strike U.S. bases outside the Middle East, including in Europe, if American aircraft used them to attack Iran, CBS reported.

In the strait

Shipping through Hormuz remains dangerous. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Wednesday that two more oil tankers struck sea mines while trying to leave the strait by an “unauthorized and hazardous route,” CBS reported. The U.S. military says the southern shipping lanes are safe and open, and it has struck tankers it accuses of breaking its blockade of Iranian ports.

Maritime monitoring firms counted at least 37 attacks on ships in and near the strait in October, the most in any month since the war began, according to Al Jazeera.

The insurer Allianz Trade estimated Wednesday that physical damage in the Gulf states is “just above $200bn,” and that the total economic cost to those countries could reach $790 billion through 2030.

Closer to home: heating oil

For Americans, the most direct cost may arrive with the first heating bill. The National Energy Assistance Directors Association projects that the average household will spend $1,002 to heat its home this winter, up 7.1% from last year, according to CBS News.

Households that burn heating oil, which is especially common in the Northeast, face a much steeper increase. The association projects they will pay $2,977 this winter, up 70.2%. CBS reported that heating oil prices have risen because of the Iran war.

Prices have fallen in recent weeks, the association said, but executive director Mark Wolfe warned that “families should not assume that prices will continue to fall.”

The politics

The war has also become a domestic issue. Trump and Vice President JD Vance have both said the war was partly to blame for Republican losses in last week’s midterms, Al Jazeera reported. Vance favors a deal with Iran, which Trump does not believe is possible right now, Reuters reported, citing an informed source.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll completed Monday found 71% of Americans favor legislation in Congress that would halt the war, including 93% of Democrats and 51% of Republicans, according to Al Jazeera.

Threats have followed U.S. officials home. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent moved from his Washington-area home to a military base after Iranian threats against his life, CBS reported. “The secretary will not be deterred by the Iranian regime’s threats and remains committed to executing Operation Economic Outcast and maintaining the blockade, which together are collapsing Iran’s economy,” a Treasury spokesperson said.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Doha is “working tirelessly” on mediation and has received positive reactions from both sides.