Trump had not previously gone as far in saying that the war was nearing an end

US President Donald Trump told CBS that the US was 'very far' ahead of his initially stated war time frame of four or five weeks. Photo / Getty Images

United States President Donald Trump today described the US-Israeli war with Iran as “pretty much” over without giving details of any solution to the conflict still raging in the Middle East.

Trump said told CBS that the war was “very complete” and that the US was far ahead of his initial timeline of around a month.

“I think the war is very complete, pretty much. They have no Navy, no communications, they’ve got no Air Force,” Trump told CBS News by phone.

“Their missiles are down to a scatter. Their drones are being blown up all over the place, including their manufacturing of drones,” he added.

“If you look, they have nothing left. There’s nothing left in a military sense.”

Trump told the US broadcaster that the US was “very far” ahead of his initially stated war time frame of four or five weeks.

The US leader has given similar assessments in recent days of battle damage from the US-Israeli strikes that began on February 28, but he had not gone as far in saying that the war was nearing an end.

Just last Friday, Trump issued a statement that Iran’s “unconditional surrender” was the only acceptable outcome for ending the war.

And his comments came about an hour after the Pentagon posted on social media that the US had “only just begun to fight”.

CBS reported that when asked if he thought the war could wrap up soon, Trump answered: “Wrapping up is all in my mind, nobody else’s”.

Trump also threatened Iran if it tried to close the Strait of Hormuz, the shipping lane where oil tanker transit has already virtually halted, sending energy prices soaring around the world.

He said he was “thinking about taking it over” even as he insisted that traffic was starting to move.

The US President had few words for Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who was elected to replace his slain father Ali Khamenei.

“I have no message for him. None, whatsoever,” Trump said, adding that he had someone else in mind to lead Iran.

Trump earlier told the New York Post he was “not happy” with Mojtaba Khamenei’s appointment.

In the Middle East, British warplanes began “defensive air sorties” in support of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and took out drones elsewhere in the region amid the ongoing war, the UK Defence Ministry said.

More US B-52 bombers landed at the British air force base in Fairford, in southwestern England, today, AFP witnessed, after a first one landed on Friday.

Fairford is one of two bases, along with the Diego Garcia facility in the Indian Ocean, that the UK has given the US permission to use for “specific defensive operations into Iran” to destroy Iranian missiles at source, Defence Minister John Healey said.

“The UK is now conducting defensive air sorties in support of the UAE,” Healey told MPs in a statement.

“Typhoons successfully took out two drones, one over Jordan, the second heading to Bahrain.”

-Agence France-Presse