Trump Says Ending Iran War May Take Two To Three Weeks As Timeline Shifts

President Donald Trump’s timeline for ending the Iran war has kept changing, with the Washington Post describing “increasingly contradictory statements” since the start of the war in Iran in late February.

The Washington Post says the administration’s shifting timeline for the war’s end is “one of the clearest examples of its flip-flopping messaging,” and that it has led to confusion requiring “cleanup by the White House staff.”

Al Jazeera

In the early hours of Tuesday, Farda News reported Trump claimed he had achieved a military victory over Iran but was seeking a proper agreement, saying, “Maybe to finish the job with Iran we will need two to three weeks, and time is not a matter of pressure for us.”

Farda News also quotes Trump saying, “We are winning and we will reach a proper agreement with Iran. Militarily we are currently victorious.”

The same claim appears in روزنامه دنیای اقتصاد, which says Trump stated “perhaps to finish the job with Iran we would need two or three weeks,” and that “time is not a matter of pressure for us.”

The Washington Post frames the contradiction as part of a broader pattern, noting that “Since the start of the war in Iran in late February, President Donald Trump has made increasingly contradictory statements about the United States’ strategy.”

As the legal fight over the Iran war’s continuation approached, Sky News Arabic said Friday marked the deadline for U.S. President Donald Trump to end the war on Iran or to appeal to Congress and provide justification for extending it.

The outlet said the deadline was likely to pass without a change in the course of the conflict, which it described as “stalled and turned into a confrontation over shipping routes.”

Al-Bayadir as-siyasi

Sky News Arabic reported that analysts and aides on Capitol Hill expected Trump either to notify Congress of his intention to extend for 30 days or to ignore the deadline altogether, with his administration then arguing that the current ceasefire with Iran is the end of the conflict.

It also laid out the War Powers Act of 1973 framework, saying that “Under the War Powers Act of 1973, the president must end any ongoing conflict after 60 days unless he has obtained authorization to continue the war,” and that the president can obtain an extension of 30 days due to “a 'military necessity relating to the safety of American armed forces.'”

Sky News Arabic said the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began on February 28 of last year, and that Trump officially notified Congress after 48 hours, triggering the sixty-day countdown that ends on May 1, Friday.

The same article reported that an American official told Reuters Trump was scheduled to be briefed on Thursday on plans for new military strikes on Iran to force it to negotiate to end the conflict.

In contrast to the looming deadline described by Sky News Arabic, Hespress reported that the Trump administration declared the “end” of the Iran war for War Powers Act purposes.

Hespress said a senior official in the administration told reporters that the ceasefire with Iran, which took effect in April, “has ended the fighting between the two sides, at least as it relates to the War Powers Act.”

The outlet said Trump had a deadline until today, Friday, to end the war with Iran or provide Congress with justification to extend it, but that the deadline would “most likely pass without any change in the course of the conflict.”

Hespress quoted the administration’s view that “the hostilities that began on Saturday, February 28 have ended under the War Powers Act.”

It added that there had been “no exchange of fire between the U.S. armed forces and Iran since the fragile ceasefire began more than three weeks ago.”

The article’s framing directly ties the administration’s position to the legal question of whether hostilities continue under the War Powers Act.

Sky News Arabic described the political and constitutional dispute over war powers as deeply partisan, with Democrats pressing Congress to reaffirm its constitutional right to declare war while Republicans accused Democrats of trying to use the War Powers Act to weaken Trump.

It said Democrats have repeatedly since the start of the war tried to pass resolutions aimed at forcing Trump to withdraw American troops or obtain authorization from Congress, and that Trump-aligned Republicans voted against these resolutions “almost unanimously.”

Associated Press

The outlet also said war powers have become “a partisan issue par excellence,” and it tied the dispute to the upcoming midterm elections in November, which it said would determine who controls Congress next year.

Sky News Arabic reported that polls show Americans do not support the war on Iran ahead of the midterm elections, and it linked Trump’s political standing to the cost of living, saying “they attributed price increases to the war.”

On the escalation side, Sky News Arabic said an American official told Reuters Trump is scheduled to be briefed on Thursday on plans for new military strikes on Iran to force it to negotiate to end the conflict.

It added that on Thursday, Iran said it would respond with “prolonged and painful' strikes on American sites if the United States resumes the attacks,” complicating Washington’s hopes of forming an international coalition to open the Strait of Hormuz.

Farda News and the other Iran-focused reports portray Trump’s public posture as a mix of claims of victory and insistence on a “proper agreement,” while also emphasizing specific red lines attributed to the Al Jazeera network.

Farda News said Trump claimed in the early hours of Tuesday that he had achieved a military victory over Iran but was seeking a proper agreement, and it quoted him saying, “We are winning and we will reach a proper agreement with Iran. Militarily we are currently victorious.”

BBC

It also included Trump’s statement that “The team currently leading Iran is much better than the first team, but they tell the media something different from what they tell us.”

Farda News then reported Al Jazeera’s framing of red lines, saying: “Setting aside Iran's nuclear ambitions and the recovery of highly enriched uranium from Iran are red lines that cannot be crossed.”

The report also quoted Trump on what he said Iran must do, including “The Iranians now need a deal and, due to sanctions, their oil storage capacity has run out.”

Finally, Farda News said Trump claimed, “The Iranians may have rebuilt some things during the ceasefire, but we can destroy them quickly.”