War with Iran will end after US midterm elections, says Donald Trump

Washington (Web Desk): President of the United States (US) Donald Trump has said he expects the conflict between Washington and Tehran to come to an immediate end once the US midterm elections are over on November 3.

Speaking to journalists before travelling to Dallas, Texas, to attend the Republican Party’s first midterm convention, Trump said Iran was no longer in a position to sustain the war for much longer.

"I think the war will end immediately after the election because they can't hold out any longer," Trump told reporters, while claiming that Tehran was attempting to influence the outcome of the US elections.

Trump said the United States was not currently seeking to revive nuclear negotiations with Iran, although he acknowledged that talks could still take place in the future.

"We're not looking for it. Yes, a negotiation could possibly happen, but it's not something we're looking at," he added.

The president said the administration’s objectives went beyond reaching an agreement over Iran’s nuclear programme.

"There is a lot more than nuclear," he said, adding the US will “have nuclear, that’s 99.9, but there is gonna be a lot of other things on the table.”

Trump also claimed that American military action in the Strait of Hormuz had put nine Iranian oil tankers out of operation.

“You're going to see a lot more. We've taken out about nine of their tankers,” he said.

In a separate development, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio rejected reports suggesting that Iran was receiving foreign assistance that had changed the direction or balance of the conflict.

“These are anonymous people. They make stuff up all the time ... We don't believe anybody's giving Iran anything that's changing the dynamics or the parameters of what we're seeing,” Rubio said during a visit to Ecuador when asked about possible countries supporting Iran and how Washington would respond.

Rubio said Tehran would continue to face consequences for attacks against US naval vessels, with Iranian tankers being targeted in response.

"At the end of the day, they continue to fire at our naval ships, and when they fire at our naval ships, they pay a price in tankers. They lose a lot of tankers," he said.

"They lost five more last night. Four were damaged. One was sunk. So they'll continue to pay a price for that," he said.

Rubio further stated that Washington would continue using economic measures to put pressure on Tehran.

"In the meantime, we're going to continue to strangle them economically," he said.