On March 25, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that US President Donald Trump had informed senior aides that he wanted to end the military conflict with Iran in the coming weeks to avoid a sinking scenario.
According to revelations from the newspaper, in recent closed-door meetings and private conversations, Mr. Trump shared with his associates that he "wants to avoid a prolonged conflict in the Middle East". The US leader assessed that the conflict has now entered its final stage. Therefore, he continuously urged the national security team to closely follow the 4 to 6 weeks mark that he had publicly outlined earlier to close the campaign.
This move stems from real domestic pressures. President Trump admitted to his team that attention to the Iranian dossier is distracting him from other core priorities.
The WSJ noted that his closest advisors are advising him to quickly shift focus to the urgent issues that US voters are really concerned about. The most typical is the upward trend of living costs and inflation, which is being fueled by instability from this geopolitical conflict.
Time pressure comes not only from the economic problem but is also closely related to the global diplomatic chessboard. According to WSJ sources, the White House has now planned for Mr. Trump's visit to China in mid-May. Washington strategists place "expectations that the conflict will completely end before this meeting begins", to help the US enter the negotiating table with the most focused mindset.
Looking back at the context, the conflict broke out on February 28 when the US and Israel launched a large-scale military campaign against Iran. Many key cities, including the capital Tehran, suffered airstrikes. The White House then justified this action by citing threats from Tehran's missile and nuclear programs.
In response, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) immediately launched a retaliatory campaign. Iran's firepower not only targeted Israel but also directly attacked a series of US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Notably, this confrontation led to a major event when Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a number of other key Iranian leaders were killed in a joint US-Israel coalition attack. This shocking event pushed regional tensions to the highest risk level, forcing the current Washington administration to calculate an emergency "cooldown" roadmap to avoid a comprehensive out-of-control conflict.
