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The United States will be "out of Iran pretty quickly" and could return for "spot hits" if needed, U.S. President Donald Trump told Reuters in a phone interview Wednesday, hours before a scheduled primetime address to the nation in which he said he would express his "disgust" with NATO for its lack of support during the war.
Asked when the United States would consider the war over, Trump said: "I can't tell you exactly... we're going to be out pretty quickly."
Trump is scheduled to deliver the address at 9 p.m. EDT (0100 GMT) on Wednesday.
The speech will bookend a day that begins with the president's historic visit to the Supreme Court.
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Trump claimed that U.S. military action had ensured Iran could no longer develop a nuclear weapon, saying, "They won't have a nuclear weapon because they are incapable of that now, and then I'll leave, and I'll take everybody with me, and if we have to we'll come back to do spot hits."
Iran has long denied wanting to develop a nuclear weapon and says its nuclear program is peaceful.
Asked about enriched uranium still in Iran's possession, Trump dismissed the concern by stating, "That's so far underground, I don't care about that," he said. "We'll always be watching it by satellite."
Trump said the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in U.S.-Israeli airstrikes amounted to "full regime change" and expressed hope for a deal with Iran's new leadership.
"I'm dealing with a very good chance that we'll make a deal because they don't want to be blasted anymore," Trump said.
"I didn't need regime change, but we got it because of the casualties of war. We got it. So we have regime change and the big thing we have is they're not going to have a nuclear weapon," he said, adding: "Nor do they want one."
Trump also claimed that the Iranian leader asked the U.S. for a ceasefire.
In a statement on his Truth Social, the U.S. president said, "Iran's New Regime President, much less Radicalized and far more intelligent than his predecessors, has just asked the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE!"
"We will consider when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear. Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!," he added.
Trump said one element of his primetime speech would be to express his frustration with NATO. He confirmed he is "absolutely" considering an attempt to withdraw the United States from the alliance, a treaty organization ratified by the U.S. Senate in 1949.
"They haven't been friends when we needed them," Trump said, adding that, "We've never asked them for much... it's a one-way street."
His remarks followed comments Tuesday from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who accused NATO of being a "one-way street" and said the alliance would need to be reexamined after the war.
Trump told The Telegraph in a separate interview on Wednesday that NATO was a "paper tiger."
The war is now in its fifth week, with Trump under pressure for an off-ramp amid rising gasoline prices. The U.S. and Israel have struck Iran since Feb. 28, killing more than 1,340 people, including the former supreme leader.
Iran has retaliated with strikes across the region, causing casualties and infrastructure damage.
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