Trump says Iran war will end after US midterm elections, rejecting new talks

United States President Donald Trump has said the war in Iran will end immediately after the upcoming US midterm elections. He made the remarks on Wednesday before boarding Air Force One for a trip to Dallas, Texas, framing the conflict in explicitly domestic political terms. Trump also suggested that Iran is trying to delay an end to the war in order to influence the vote.

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Trump said the Iranian government was seeking to create a more favourable political environment in the United States. He accused Tehran of hoping to help Democrats win control of one or both chambers of Congress in the November 3 midterms. The president said Iran was desperate to affect the election so that, in his words, a weaker group of lawmakers would be in place.

The president also said the United States is not looking to restart negotiations with Iran after the failure of previous ceasefire talks. When asked whether Washington would return to talks on a nuclear agreement, he suggested his aims were broader than a deal focused only on nuclear issues. He said there was "a lot more than nuclear" at stake, while also indicating that the US was not seeking to reopen the previous diplomatic track.

The comments come against the backdrop of a war that began on February 28, when the United States and Israel cited Iran's nuclear programme as a key justification for launching hostilities. Trump and his officials said at the time that Iran posed an imminent threat to the US and its allies. Iran has long denied seeking a nuclear weapon, saying its uranium enrichment is for civilian power purposes only.

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The nuclear issue has remained central to the conflict and to repeated ceasefire discussions over the past six months. US intelligence reports have cast doubt on whether Iran was building a nuclear weapon, although concerns have been raised about the level of enrichment. Trump also recalled that he had previously withdrawn from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear deal that would have limited the amount of uranium Iran could enrich.

The latest remarks underline how the war is being tied to US electoral politics as well as to long-running disputes over Iran's nuclear programme. They also suggest that, at least for now, Washington is not preparing to revive the diplomatic process that broke down after earlier ceasefire efforts failed. What remains unclear is whether any new channel for talks could emerge after the midterms, and whether the conflict will indeed ease on the timeline Trump described.

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