President Donald Trump has indicated to advisers that he is prepared to bring the U.S. military operation against Iran to a close even if the Strait of Hormuz is not fully reopened, according to a report published by The Wall Street Journal citing administration officials.

According to the report, Trump and his team recently concluded that any effort to forcibly reopen the strategic waterway could significantly extend the conflict beyond the administration’s desired four-to-six-week timeframe. As a result, the current approach is to weaken Iran’s naval forces and missile capabilities, then scale back military activity while increasing diplomatic pressure on Tehran to restore normal shipping operations.

Officials said that if diplomatic efforts fail, the United States would look to its European and Gulf allies to take the lead in reopening the strait.

Last weekend, Trump issued Iran a 48-hour ultimatum to restore access through the Strait of Hormuz or face U.S. strikes targeting its power infrastructure.

Since then, the deadline has been extended twice to allow for negotiations, most recently on Thursday when Trump granted Iran an additional ten days.

On Monday, Trump said that Washington is engaged in “serious discussions” with a new leadership in Tehran aimed at ending the conflict.

“The United States of America is in serious discussions with A NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME to end our Military Operations in Iran,” he wrote on Truth Social.

He added that progress has been made but warned of severe consequences if talks collapse or the strait remains closed.

“Great progress has been made but, if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached, which it probably will be, and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched.'”

Trump further said that such actions would be retaliation for past attacks attributed to Iran.

“This will be in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old Regime’s 47 year ‘Reign of Terror.’ Thank you for your attention to this matter.”