Trump's former chief of staff warns Middle East war could drag on for 'six months'
Donald Trump's former Chief of Staff has told LBC that the US-Israel war with Iran is "nowhere close to being finished" and said the conflict could drag on for another six months.
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Mick Mulvaney served under President Trump in 2019 and 2020 and defended his former boss' decision to the spark the conflict, describing Iranian officials as "bad actors."
Speaking to LBC's Simon Marks, Mr Mulvaney said: "I think if you look at the lay of the land, this is nowhere close to being finished.
"The Straits must be open, period, end of story. That's either going to happen militarily or diplomatically, and either one of those things are likely to take several weeks, if not months."
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It follows the President's comments during the early hours of Thursday where he threatened to send Iranian leaders "back to the Stone Age."
He has also ramped up threats to withdraw from NATO in recent days after criticising allies' efforts to assit the US in the war.
Mr Mulvaney said: "I think that they had some exquisite intelligence on the ability to take out all of the senior leadership of the Iranians, something that governments over here have talked about for generations.
"Whether or not anything beyond that was reckless, that's open for discussion. A lot of it depends on how this ends.
"I think I can justify and I have justified the initial attack.
"Listen, Iran is a bad place. There really is. They are not good actors. I think they've killed someplace between 30 and 90,000 of their own people in the last several months, depending on what sources you listen to.
"They target American and other Western personalities all around the world. I have friends of mine who have to have personal security details because the Iranians are trying to kill them.
"These are really bad people. So to get rid of the leadership, I think was a once in a generation opportunity."
Trump billed the overnight address as an "update on the tremendous progress our warriors have made in Iran".
The speech was the first prime-time address that he has given since he launched the first strikes on Iran 33 days ago.
The President claimed that the US is on track to "complete all of America's objectives shortly"He told Americans that Iran's navy, air force, and leaders were all now "gone", and also claimed their feared ballistic missile stockpile is "just about used up".
Despite claiming that regime change was not an objective of the US military, Trump again claimed that he had achieved this.
Mr Mulvaney suggested the war is at a critical stage in determining the future of the President's legacy.
He said: "If he cuts a deal in the next two to three weeks, the Iranians decide they want to be decent actors on the world stage, and the price of oil goes back down to $65, Trump is going to be perceived as a genius.
"If we're still in this war a year from now, it's going to taint his legacy for a long, long time."