President Donald Trump said Monday that the war with Iran could wrap up soon, while defending the military campaign as necessary to prevent Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Speaking to reporters, Trump said the conflict would not drag on much longer.

“It won’t be long,” Trump said. “We’re going to have a much safer world. I had an obligation to do this. I didn’t want to.”

Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Trump whether the war could end this week after the president previously said Iran’s navy had been “totally obliterated.”

“Yeah, sure,” Trump initially replied before adding that while it may not end immediately, the conflict would conclude soon.

Trump argued that allowing Iran to develop nuclear weapons would have far greater consequences than the economic impact of the war.

“We had the highest stock market in history. We had low gas prices. Everything was good,” Trump said. “People are going to raise the price of oil. But that’s a very small thing compared to allowing them to have… you want to see a stock market go down, start letting them hit you with nukes.”

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)