In a televised “address to the nation” on Wednesday night, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that the U.S. military had almost achieved its objectives in Iran, but did not provide a definitive timeline for the war’s conclusion, instead sending mixed messages that left the conflict's endgame unclear.

Facing a war-wary American public, sliding approval ratings and pressure from some allies to outline his war aims in more precise and consistent terms, Trump said the US had destroyed Iran’s navy and air force and crippled its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes, The Caspian Post reports, citing foreign media.

But he declined to lay out a concrete plan to wind down the war, now in its fifth week, beyond saying that the US would finish the job “very fast.” “We have all the cards,” Trump said from the White House in his first primetime address since the US and Israel launched the war on February 28. “They have none.”

He glossed over some major unresolved issues such as the status of Iran’s enriched uranium and access through the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for global oil supplies which Iran has effectively closed.

The strait, he said, would open “naturally” once the war ended, a prospect seen by analysts as uncertain.

Trump’s 19-minute address broke little new ground and offered scant reassurance to Americans and US allies who are feeling increasing pain at the petrol pump and growing impatience with the war.

Trump’s conflicting statements in recent weeks did little to assuage concerns about possible fallout from the escalating war. His Wednesday address was no exception.

“We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” Trump said. “We’re going to bring them back to the Stone Ages where they belong.”

“In the meantime, discussions are ongoing,” he added. “Yet if during this period of time, no deal is made, we have our eyes on key targets.”

A day earlier, Trump had told reporters Tehran did not have to make a deal as a prerequisite for the conflict to wind down.

Trump has wavered between options to escalate and de-escalate the conflict making his next moves unclear, even to some close advisers. His speech offered little additional clarity.

Democratic US Senator Chris Murphy said: “Anyone watching that speech has no idea whether Trump is escalating or de-escalating the war with Iran.”

“But to be fair, neither does he so,” Murphy wrote on X.

The US president and his advisers have offered shifting explanations and timelines for the conflict, as well as what they exactly will require from Iran for it to end.

While portraying Iran as militarily neutered, Trump also said on Wednesday night the US would hit the nation hard for another two or three weeks.

Trump also again threatened that if Iran does not reach a negotiated settlement with him, the United States would “hit each and every one of their electric generating plants.”

Iran had threatened it would retaliate by attacking electricity plants across the region sparking concern in Gulf countries about the risk of a massive blackout.

Attacks on civilian energy infrastructure are rejected by many legal experts as illegal under the laws of war and could constitute a war crime.

“Over the next two to three weeks, we are going to bring them back to the Stone Ages, where they belong,” Trump said.

There was little in his address about actual diplomacy.

Investors’ Worries

Stocks fell, the dollar firmed and oil rose shortly after Trump spoke as the eagerly anticipated address disappointed investors hoping for clearer signals of a way out of a conflict that sparked global energy supply chaos and has threatened to send the world economy into a tailspin.

“If he (Trump) was trying to inspire confidence in the markets, he has not done that. The key question in all investors’ minds is ‘When is this going to be over?’, that is what is creating the volatility,” said Russel Chesler, Head of Investments and Capital Markets at Vaneck Australia.

As Trump spoke, air sirens blared across both Doha and Tel Aviv, illustrating how the Islamic Republic is still able to wreak havoc across the Middle East and the Gulf region, despite heavy losses taken by Tehran.

While the president on Wednesday briefly acknowledged growing concerns among Americans that the war is making petrol unaffordable, he insisted that prices would soon go down and that the increases were mainly Iran’s fault.

He added that countries that get most of their oil supply from the Gulf region should take the lead in opening the strait. Britain, France and other US allies have said they are willing to help to keep the strait open but only after hostilities have ceased.

“They can do it easily,” Trump said. “We will be helpful, but they should take the lead in protecting the oil that they so desperately depend on,” he said.

Trump had expressed anger that NATO allies have not offered to help open the strait, even threatening to withdraw from the 76-year-old alliance. But he did not mention the bloc in his speech.

In a Reuters/Ipsos survey conducted Friday through Sunday, 60 percent of voters said they disapproved of the war, while 35 percent approved. Some 66 percent of respondents said the US should work to end its involvement in the war quickly, even if that meant not achieving the goals set out by the administration.

While Trump’s MAGA movement has mostly stood with him, his grip on his political base could weaken if the economic impact, including high petrol prices, persists with his Republican Party scrambling to keep control of Congress in November’s midterm elections

While pressuring Iran to accept a deal, US Administration officials have floated a daring scenario to physically seize Iran’s remaining stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, as well as ground operations to seize strategic pieces of land, including parts of Iran’s coastline and Kharg Island, through which Iran exports the vast majority of its oil.

Thousands of additional troops continue to sail toward the Gulf region, indicating the president wants to keep his military options open.

Trump touted the US military’s successes in the conflict but questions remain about whether he has truly achieved the main goal he laid out at the start of the war: closing off Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon.

More than a month later, Iran still has a stockpile of highly enriched uranium that could be processed to bomb grade, but it is believed to be mostly buried underground by US-Israeli bombing in June.

Trump, in a sudden reversal from his demands that Iran turn over the enriched uranium, told Reuters earlier on Wednesday that he no longer cared about the material because it was “so far underground”‌ and US satellites could keep an eye on the area. Iran has always denied seeking a nuclear bomb.