Desk Correspondent , Washington DC - 32 days into a war that has reordered the Middle East, disrupted global energy markets, fractured Western alliances, and pushed petrol past four dollars a gallon in the United States, President Donald Trump stood before reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday and uttered words that instantly moved markets, rattled capitals, and raised one overriding question: does he mean it this time? "We'll be leaving very soon," Trump told reporters. "Within two weeks, maybe two weeks, maybe three." More strikingly, he abandoned his central diplomatic demand: Iran, he declared, does not need to make a deal for the war to end. The US may simply declare success and go home. Whether that constitutes a strategy or an improvisation is the defining question hanging over the fifth week of the Iran-US war.

President Donald Trump said U.S. forces would leave Iran within 2-3 weeks, with no nuclear deal or diplomacy required, on the condition that Iran is “put into the Stone Ages” and can no longer quickly get a nuclear weapon. His remarks broke from Washington’s earlier 15 point ceasefire plan, linked the withdrawal to falling U.S. gas prices which had hit $4 a gallon and $5.99 in Los Angeles and sent the S&P 500 up 2.9% and the Dow up 2.5%.

Trump also rebuked Britain, Spain, and France, telling them to “fight for themselves” and “get your own oil,” while Iranian forces threatened staff of 18 U.S. firms like Microsoft, Google, Apple, Tesla, and Boeing, and Iran’s foreign minister said trust is “at zero.” A Kuwaiti oil tanker was hit near Dubai, Israel’s Netanyahu said the war was “more than halfway” in missions, and the White House announced Trump would deliver a prime‑time national address on Iran at 9 p.m. ET, even as analysts noted his pattern of two‑week promises he has often not kept.

Trump’s 2-3 week exit declaration, if fulfilled, would be one of the most consequential foreign policy moves of his presidency, ending a war that has reshaped the Middle East and strained Western alliances, without a formal deal, without reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and without binding nuclear commitments from Tehran. Whether this is seen as victory or strategic retreat will define the war’s legacy. What is clear, however, is that the Strait remains blockaded, the alliance is fractured, Iran is devastated but defiant, and the Middle East will not return to its pre February 28 equilibrium no matter when the guns fall silent.