MIAMI/TEHRAN — President Donald Trump said Monday in an interview with CBS that the war with Iran was "very complete" and that the United States was far ahead of his initial timeline of around a month.

 

US stocks jumped higher and oil prices sank in after-hours trading following Trump's comments, despite the fact that there were no immediate signs of the conflict abating.

 

"I think the war is very complete, pretty much. They have no navy, no communications, they've got no air force," Trump told CBS News by phone.

 

"Their missiles are down to a scatter. Their drones are being blown up all over the place, including their manufacturing of drones," he added. "If you look, they have nothing left. There's nothing left in a military sense."

 

Trump told the US broadcaster that the United States was "very far" ahead of his initially stated war time frame of four or five weeks.

 

The US leader has given similar assessments in recent days of battle damage from the US-Israeli strikes that began on February 28, but had not gone as far in saying that the war was nearing an end.

 

Just last Friday, Trump issued a statement that Iran's "unconditional surrender" was the only acceptable outcome for ending the war.

 

And his comments came about an hour after the Pentagon posted on social media that the United States had "only just begun to fight."

 

CBS reported that when asked if he thought the war could wrap up soon, Trump answered: "Wrapping up is all in my mind, nobody else's."

 

Trump also threatened Iran if it tried to close the Strait of Hormuz, the shipping lane where oil tanker transit has already virtually halted, sending energy prices soaring around the world.

 

He said he was "thinking about taking it over" even as he insisted that traffic was starting to move.

 

The US president however had few words for Iran's new supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who was elected to replace his slain father Ali Khamenei.

 

"I have no message for him. None, whatsoever," Trump said, adding that he had someone else in mind to lead Iran.

 

Meanwhile, Iran's security chief Ali Larijani said Monday that security in the strategic Strait of Hormuz cannot be restored as long as the war with the United States and Israel continues.

 

"It is unlikely that any security can be achieved in the Strait of Hormuz amid the fires ignited by the United States and Israel in the region," said Larijani in a post on X, after France said it and its allies were preparing a "defensive" mission to reopen the waterway.

 

Under a banner bearing the portrait of Iran's slain supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the words "your path will continue", crowds gathered in Tehran to pledge allegiance to his son and successor.

 

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, was named the Islamic republic's new leader on Monday, 10 days into the war that began when the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran and has since ensnared the Middle East.

 

Ali Khamenei, who held the Islamic republic's top post for decades, was killed in the initial strikes of the US-Israeli campaign on February 28, along with his wife and daughter-in-law.

 

"Death to America, Death to Israel," and "God is Great," chanted the defiant crowds that gathered in Tehran's emblematic Enghelab Square on Monday, flanked by a heavy security presence with armoured vehicles and personnel stationed on the rooftops of surrounding buildings.

 

The new supreme leader, a discreet figure who rarely appeared in public or spoke at official events, has yet to address the nation since his appointment.

 

His election comes amid Israeli threats to target Iran's new supreme leader, while US President Donald Trump warned that the new ruler, if chosen without his approval, "isn't going to last long".

 

Trump had insisted he wanted to be involved in the appointment of Iran's new leader and dismissed the younger Khamenei as a "lightweight" and an "unacceptable" option.

 

'Complete obedience'

 

Iran's Assembly of Experts, the body tasked with selecting the supreme leader, nonetheless appeared unfazed by the threats.

 

"The path of the martyred Imam Khamenei will carry on under the name of Khamenei," said Hosseinali Eshkevari, a member of the body, ahead of the official announcement of the new leader's name.

 

Another member, Mohsen Heydari, said the late Ali Khamenei had recommended the selection of the candidate who is "hated by the enemy".

 

It was not clear how the vote for Mojtaba Khamenei was held, but Hossein Redaei, another member of the body, suggested that it took place without an in-person meeting given the wartime conditions.

 

At the gathering in Tehran, one woman formed a "T" with her hands -- a defiant gesture to signal that enemies would leave the battlefield dead.

 

Others, including women dressed in black chadors, some with their children in strollers, raised their fists and chanted the name of Mojtaba Khamenei.

 

Many clerics in white and black turbans attended the gathering as Iran's national anthem blared from loudspeakers across the square.

 

Shortly after his election, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological arm of Iran's military, pledged allegiance to the new leader, saying they were "ready for complete obedience".

 

Other key institutions, including the foreign ministry and the judiciary, also swore fealty.

 

"Your selection by the Assembly of Experts as the leader of the Islamic Republic system has caused the hostile and warmongering enemies to despair," said Iran's security chief Ali Larijani.