Trump's U.N. Ambassador Says There's No End Date for the Iran War

President Donald Trump's top diplomat to the United Nations said Sunday that he could not set a deadline for when the war between the United States and Iran would end. Mike Waltz made the comments on CNN's "State of the Union" program. The war started in February and has now lasted nearly seven months. That is much longer than Trump first said it would — he had promised the fighting would be over in four or five weeks.

Waltz said he believed the U.S. was in a strong position because of what he called "Operation Economic Fury." This plan uses a naval blockade — a line of warships that blocks ships from entering or leaving Iranian ports — to squeeze Iran's economy. Waltz said the blockade was doing exactly what it was meant to do. But Iran's leaders said they are not giving up and that the U.S. must meet their demands before the war ends.

Iran's demands include getting back money that has been frozen in foreign banks and having the blockade lifted so their ships can move freely again. A reporter named Dana Bash asked Waltz about a news report saying that top White House advisers had privately told Trump the war might last until 2029, when his term ends. Waltz answered, "I wouldn't necessarily put a timeline on it." That response worried many people who had hoped the war would end soon.

While the U.S. and Iran remain at a standoff, a group called the Houthis made things more dangerous in the region. The Houthis are fighters from Yemen who are supported by Iran. On Saturday, they launched attacks on Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia, and claimed they struck "sensitive sites." A large cloud of black smoke was seen near Riyadh's international airport.

Saudi Arabia's military said its forces had shot down a ballistic missile fired by the Houthis toward the city. A ballistic missile is a powerful rocket-powered weapon that can travel very far. The U.S. State Department then sent out a security alert warning U.S. workers in Saudi Arabia not to travel to certain cities the Houthis had been targeting. Those cities were Taif and Yanbu.

The Houthis have also been pushing forward along the coast of the Red Sea this month. They have taken over land around an important waterway called the Bab al-Mandab Strait, which is used to ship cars, oil, and other goods around the world. Their actions are causing worry about rising prices for everyday products and energy. When a key shipping route is blocked or threatened, it can cost more to move goods, and those higher costs get passed on to regular people.

On the other side of the Arabian Peninsula lies the Strait of Hormuz, another crucial route for oil and gas shipments. This waterway has become a tense standoff between Iran and the United States. Both sides are watching it closely because so much of the world's energy supply passes through it. Any fighting there could send fuel prices soaring around the globe.

Back in the United States, the unpopular war and rising prices are hurting Trump's standing with voters. The midterm elections — when Americans vote for members of Congress — are set for November 3. Polls show that many Americans are unhappy with how the war is going, and this has hurt the chances of Republican candidates who want to keep their seats. Republicans are fighting to hold onto control of Congress, but the war has made that harder.

Trump himself has continued to sound confident about the war's outcome. At a rally in North Carolina last week, he told supporters: "That war is going to end very soon. Watch, you just watch. Trump was right about everything, you watch." He also said that Iran wants to make a deal very badly, and that Iran may be trying to use the war as a bargaining chip before the U.S. elections. Iran's leaders, however, told a different story.

Iran's military command center warned that if the U.S. makes any kind of mistake against Iran, Tehran will respond with what they called "painful attacks." A top Iranian security official named Mohsen Rezaei also wrote on social media that the U.S. must agree to Iran's conditions if it wants to get out of the difficult situation it created. Both sides are standing firm, and for now, there is no clear path to peace.