Iran war ‘highly unlikely’ to resume, says Trump

U.S. President Donald Trump has dismissed the likelihood of renewed military conflict with Iran, describing further hostilities as "highly unlikely" ahead of a scheduled White House meeting with Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Trump addressed speculation fueled by recent administration threats and media reports—that strikes might resume following last week’s midterm elections. While asserting that any future action depends on whether Tehran signs a comprehensive agreement, the president maintained that previous military operations severely degraded Iran's capabilities.

"I would if necessary, but we hit them really hard. I hit them so hard. You don’t know how hard I hit them," Trump said.

The diplomatic engagement comes as international mediation pauses to assess the political fallout from the U.S. midterms, which resulted in major Republican losses and shifted control of Congress. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi noted on state television that diplomatic travel by regional mediators has temporarily halted while the international community processes the election results.

“For the past few days, there has been no more travel, and the reason for this is the shock that the election results in the United States have caused to everyone. We now have to see how long it will take for them to digest these results, in order to determine how we are going to move forward,” Araghchi stated.

Araghchi also claimed that the electoral outcome reflects growing domestic exhaustion in the U.S. regarding protracted conflicts in the Middle East, writing on social media that American citizens are “sick and tired of Israel bamboozling U.S. administrations into Forever Wars.”

Trump has acknowledged that public dissatisfaction surrounding the conflict which escalated following U.S.-Israeli strikes in late February contributed significantly to his party’s congressional defeats. However, the U.S. president insisted that intense economic pressure and inflation will ultimately force Iran to capitulate to Washington's terms, even as Iranian state media reported overnight explosions and an attack on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz.