Trump leaves key questions unanswered as he seeks to calm nerves over Iran war. 6 hours ago. Gary O’DonoghueChief North America Correspondent. President Donald Trump’s address from the White House on Wednesday evening was – despite some speculation beforehand – largely a rehash of what he has been saying for days about the Iran war.. In a 20-minute primetime speech, he said the “core strategic objectives” of the US-Israeli military operation were “nearing completion” after a month of war and projected it would last another two to three weeks.. There were the usual threats against Iran, too, including a repeated pledge to bomb the country “back to the stone age”.. If you were to copy and paste his posts on Truth Social over the last week or so, you would not be far off this address to the nation.. The president did attempt to persuade Americans of the merits of this war. There is good reason for that, as polls suggest a consistent majority of voters disapprove of the military operation he launched on 28 February.. Trump urged Americans to see this war as an “investment” in their future, and suggested it was nothing compared to other conflicts over the past century or more in which the US has ended up being involved for far longer.. But there was little here for those hoping for clear answers on where this war is heading or potential exit ramps for the US. There were glaring omissions which leave a plethora of questions unanswered.. Trump’s vow to hit Iran ‘extremely hard’ sends markets down and oil price up. Trump says Iran war objectives ‘nearing completion’ in address to nation. What do Trump’s latest comments on leaving Nato mean for the alliance?. Israel’s perpetual war with Iran may be hard to win with military might alone. Firstly, Israel is still attacking Iran and taking incoming drone and missile attacks – including earlier on Wednesday in Tel Aviv just hours before the beginning of Passover.. A key question is whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government agrees with the timetable of a few more weeks that was provided by Trump. We simply do not know at this point in time.. Secondly, what happened to the 15-point peace plan the White House was urging Iran to accept just days ago? There was no mention of it by Trump on Wednesday night. Is Washington now ditching many of those demands, including the retrieval of its stockpile of enriched uranium?. That, too, is unclear.. The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s busiest oil shipping channels which has been effectively closed off by Iran, is a central issue in this conflict.. The president, however, does not appear to have a settled view on it.. One moment he is demanding Iran allow tankers through, and the next he is telling allies to go and sort it out for themselves. “Go to the strait and just take it, protect it, use it for yourselves,” he said on Wednesday. “The hard part is done, so it should be easy.”. He then simply said, without expanding further, that the
