U.S. President Donald Trump looks on after disembarking Air Force One as he arrives at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, U.S., April 12, 2026.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
The Iran war is “very close to over” with authorities in Tehran eager to agree a peace deal, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed in an interview broadcast Wednesday.
“We’ve beaten them militarily, totally,” Trump told Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo in a prerecorded interview. “I think it’s close to over, I view it as very close to over … If I pulled up stakes right now it would take them 20 years to rebuild that country, and we’re not finished.”
“We’ll see what happens, I think they want to make a deal very badly,” he added.
The president’s latest comments come amid growing market optimism that a diplomatic solution to the U.S.-Iran war can be found, despite the failure of peace talks last weekend.
Trump downplayed global market turbulence sparked by the war and said oil prices, which have soared due to supply disruptions, would soon fall.
He again defended U.S. military operations against Iran, saying: “We have to stop them from ever having a nuclear weapon.”
Trump predicted that when the war was over, the “stock market is going to boom, it’s already booming.”
A White House official told CNBC on Tuesday that a second round of negotiations between Washington and Tehran was under discussion. Nothing had been officially scheduled as of Tuesday, however, according to the official, who asked not to be named to discuss the administration’s internal plans.
Trump later told the New York Post that fresh U.S.-Iran talks in Islamabad “could be happening over the next two days.”
He had initially told the outlet in a phone interview that additional negotiations could be “a little bit slow” and would likely happen in Europe, but called back about 30 minutes later with updated information, the Post reported.
Confirmation that the Trump administration is mulling further talks with Tehran followed prior reports that stalled peace negotiations could restart before a fragile two-week ceasefire is set to expire next week.
In the meantime, Washington has forged ahead with its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the vital maritime passage largely controlled by Iran.
U.S. Central Command said late Tuesday that the blockade, which is not allowing ships to enter or exit Iranian ports, has been fully implemented, “completely” cutting off Tehran’s international sea trade.
Correction April 15, 2026: This article was updated to reflect the fact that the interview was prerecorded