Speaking on Friday after meeting G7 foreign ministers in France, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio struck a confident tone, telling reporters that Washington expects its operation against Iran to conclude in “weeks, not months.”
“When we are done with them here in the next couple weeks, they will be weaker than they’ve been in recent history,” Rubio said. But the assurances came against a backdrop of continuing violence across the region and an Israeli threat to “escalate and expand” its own attacks against the Islamic republic. Tehran, for its part, continues to fire missiles at Israel, suggesting the conflict is far from a swift resolution.
Trump’s decision to delay his ultimatum for reopening the Strait of Hormuz by another ten days did little to calm global markets or signal an imminent end to hostilities.
