Trump predicts two-week end to Iran war as Israel strikes Tehran

On Wednesday morning, explosions tore through Tehran as President Trump declared the war with Iran could be finished in two or three weeks. The conflict had begun weeks earlier when American and Israeli airstrikes killed Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the fighting had since metastasized into a regional conflagration that sent global oil prices climbing and threatened economic havoc across continents.

Trump's timeline stood in sharp contrast to the military reality on the ground. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that operations would continue, that the campaign had "changed the face of the Middle East," and that Israel would keep crushing what he called the terror regime. Iran's government, meanwhile, insisted it was not negotiating with Washington and had not engaged with a reported 15-point American proposal to end the war. Yet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera that he still received messages from US envoy Steve Witkoff, though he characterized these as something less than formal talks—messages to which Iran responded "whenever necessary." The White House announced Trump would deliver an important update on Iran Wednesday evening, but the actual state of diplomatic efforts remained murky.

The violence, however, was unmistakable. Israeli forces confirmed they had struck Tehran on Wednesday, with explosions reported across the capital's northern, eastern, and central districts. The Israeli military said it was simultaneously intercepting a missile attack from Iran; medics reported that one strike seriously wounded an 11-year-old girl and injured thirteen others. Israel also said it was defending against a missile fired from Yemen—the third attack by Houthi rebels since they entered the war over the weekend. Across the region, the toll had become staggering: thousands dead, millions displaced from their homes.

Lebanon had been pulled into the fighting on March 2 when Hezbollah, backed by Tehran, launched attacks on Israel. Israeli strikes and a ground offensive followed, and Lebanon's health ministry reported more than 1,200 dead. On Wednesday, seven people were killed in strikes on south Beirut and a nearby area. A resident named Hassan Jalwan told reporters he no longer knew what was happening around him, that displaced people were sleeping in the open streets. The scene was one of blackened pavement and scattered debris.

The war had spread to America's Gulf allies as well. Iran launched retaliatory attacks on nations it said had served as launching points for strikes against it. A Bangladeshi worker was killed by shrapnel from an intercepted drone in the United Arab Emirates. Kuwait's international airport came under Iranian drone attack, resulting in a large fire at its fuel tanks. Bahrain reported a fire at a business facility from Iranian aggression. Saudi Arabia said it intercepted and destroyed several drones. A tanker was hit in waters off Qatar. In Iraq, near Erbil's international airport, which faced regular attacks from pro-Iran groups, a 31-year-old truck driver named Waad Abdulrazaq told reporters he heard drones constantly—morning and night—and could no longer sleep or live in peace.

Trump had threatened earlier in the week that if Iran did not agree to a deal, American forces would "obliterate" its oil wells, its main Kharg Island export terminal, and possibly its water desalination plants. He also said that countries seeking passage through the Strait of Hormuz—through which roughly one-fifth of the world's oil normally flows—would have to "fend for themselves," a rebuke to allies who had refused to support the war effort. When Trump spoke about ending the conflict, oil prices fell and stock markets rallied in Europe and Asia. But the president also said he was not concerned about fuel costs. "All I have to do is leave Iran," he told reporters, "and we'll be doing that very soon, and they'll come tumbling down." At a gas station in Washington's suburbs, an 83-year-old woman named Jeanne Williams looked at the pump and called the prices "horrible." The gap between Trump's confidence and the reality of a region convulsing with violence, displacement, and economic uncertainty remained vast and unresolved.