Trump says Iran war has ´very good chance of ending´

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday again expressed optimism about reaching a peace deal with Iran, reported Xinhua.

"I think it's got a very good chance of ending, and if it doesn't end, we have to go back to bombing the hell out of them," Trump told U.S. media outlet PBS News in a phone interview.

The president said that he feels the United States is closing in on a deal. "But I felt that way before with them, so we'll see what happens," Trump added.

The possible deal could include Iran exporting its highly enriched uranium to the United States, according to a PBS News report.

The report said that this time Trump is "unlikely" to send his special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to talks with Iran.

Earlier on Wednesday, Trump threatened that if Tehran doesn't agree to a peace deal with Washington, U.S. forces will resume bombing "at a much higher level and intensity than it was before."

If Iran agrees to the proposed terms, the massive U.S. military campaign against Iran, dubbed Epic Fury, "will be at an end," and the U.S. blockade would allow the Strait of Hormuz to be reopened to all shipping, including Iranian vessels, Trump wrote on Truth Social.

On Tuesday, Trump halted the Pentagon's mission to guide commercial vessels out of the Strait of Hormuz while maintaining its blockade of Iranian ports, citing that "great progress has been made toward a Complete and Final Agreement with Representatives of Iran."

The United States and Iran are closing in on a one-page memorandum to end their war, which would involve Iran committing to a moratorium on nuclear enrichment and the United States agreeing to lift sanctions, with both sides lifting restrictions on transit through the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. online media Axios reported on Wednesday.

Ebrahim Rezaei, spokesman for Iran's parliamentary national security committee, dismissed the Axios report, calling it "more a list of American wishes than a reality," according to reports.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a White House news briefing on Tuesday that Operation Epic Fury was already over. "The operation is over, Epic Fury, as the president notified Congress. We're done with that stage of it," he said.