Trump's U.N. envoy Waltz says Iran war could last another year as Brent crude hits $112

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said the war with Iran could drag on for another year. He made the remark in an interview with the Financial Times published Friday, according to CBS News ¹.

Waltz said the U.S. could still be fighting 12 months from now. President Trump had initially said the war would last "four to five weeks" ¹.

What Waltz said

Waltz said the U.S. will not have achieved its key goals until Iran disposes of its highly enriched uranium. Iran must also accept a "meaningful agreement on their domestic enrichment," he said ¹.

I'm not going to put out hypotheticals. One would hope that they'll come to the table in a meaningful way before that,

He added that Mr. Trump "and the U.S. Navy can maintain this blockade [on Iranian ports] for the foreseeable future." He said the administration was still "tightening" its economic pressure on Iran ¹.

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Waltz has avoided giving a timeline before. In a July interview on NBC, he declined to say when the war would end, telling the host: "I'm not going to put some kind of timeline on it" ².

Oil and the Strait of Hormuz

Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, hit $112 a barrel Thursday morning. That was its highest price since May 18 ¹.

Mr. Trump accused Iran on Thursday of lying about attacks on tankers to push up prices before the midterms. He wrote on Truth Social that more oil is moving through the Strait of Hormuz now than before the conflict began ¹.

Iran said it struck four vessels in the Persian Gulf on Thursday and that three others hit sea mines. All the ships had used a U.S.-endorsed route that Tehran rejects ¹.

The U.S. military has escorted tankers out of the Gulf along that route. That has raised the amount of oil leaving the region, but CBS News described it as a costly process. Instability in the Middle East has kept energy prices high anyway ¹.

What happens next

Mr. Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have renewed threats of new strikes on Iran after the Nov. 3 midterm elections ¹.

Foreign ministers from Britain, France, Germany, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Egypt are meeting in Istanbul on Friday. They plan to discuss the Strait of Hormuz and the Ukraine war ¹. A U.K. statement said traffic through the strait is "sharply down on pre-war levels" ¹.

That matters because Mr. Trump initially described this as a short war. A year-long fight could mean higher fuel costs, more risk for troops and a growing bill for taxpayers. The administration has given no clear end date, and voters go to the polls in 11 days.

The Record

1. Jul 26, 2026Waltz declined on NBC to put a timeline on the Iran war ².
2. Oct 22, 2026Brent crude hit $112 a barrel, its highest since May 18, and Iran claimed strikes on ships in the Gulf ¹.
3. Oct 23, 2026Waltz told the Financial Times the war could last another year ¹.

Sources

1. CBS News, “Trump's U.N. envoy says Iran war could drag on for another year” (2026-10-23). cbsnews.com/live-updates/iran-war-trump-us-oil-gas-prices-st
2. Mediaite, “Trump's U.N. ambassador won't commit to Iran war ending in 2026 when pressed by NBC's Welker” (2026-07-26). mediaite.com/media/news/trumps-un-ambassador-wont-commit-to-

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