Witkoff: ‘I don’t know’ how Iran war will end

Special envoy Steve Witkoff said Tuesday that he didn’t “know” how the U.S. conflict against Iran will end as the fighting nears its third week.

“So how do you see this ending, this war?” CNBC’s Sara Eisen asked Witkoff on “Money Movers.”

“I don’t know, Sara. I know this, that President Trump is the wrong guy to go up against. That’s what I know. He has drawn a red line, and that is that Iran cannot have a weapon,” Witkoff responded.

“And yes, they say they don’t — they don’t want one, but all of their actions indicate the exact opposite. So, he’s just not, he’s just not the right guy to tangle with. And I would suggest they don’t,” he added.

On Monday, President Trump called the war against Iran an “excursion” that would be coming to an end soon.

“This was just an excursion into something that had to be done. We’re getting very close to finishing that too,” Trump said during a press conference.

However, a day later, Trump threatened to ratchet up American attacks against Iran if it had placed mines in the Strait of Hormuz.

“If for any reason mines were placed, and they are not removed forthwith, the Military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before. If, on the other hand, they remove what may have been placed, it will be a giant step in the right direction!” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

Trump later wrote in another post that the U.S. military destroyed 10 inactive Iranian mine-laying boats. A subsequent post from the armed forces updated that number to 16.

In a recent Quinnipiac poll, almost three-quarters of American voters expected the U.S. conflict in Iran to last for months or longer. Seventy-one percent in the poll said they believed the Iran conflict would go on for “months,” “about a year” or “longer than that” into the future.

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