US is prepared for long stand-off with Iran, says Trump envoy

Mike Waltz warns Tehran it must reach a 'meaningful agreement' on its nuclear programme

The US is preparing for a protracted conflict with Iran, even as the Trump administration hopes its bombing campaigns and economic sanctions will force major concessions from the Islamic republic.

Mike Waltz, Donald Trump's ambassador to the UN, acknowledged that a year from now the US could still be mired in a stalemate with Iran, without a deal on Tehran's nuclear programme or a return to prewar shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

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

But "the president and the US Navy can maintain this blockade [on Iranian ports] for the foreseeable future," he said, and the administration is "tightening" its economic pressure campaign.

Waltz spoke to the FT as Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu renewed threats to launch a fresh offensive on Iran following US midterm elections on November 3.

The war Trump initially said would last for "four to five weeks" is now approaching its ninth month. It has triggered record-high fuel prices, as well as fertiliser and commodities shortages, with Iran striking critical energy infrastructure across the Gulf states, the world's top oil-producing region and crippling export routes.

The war is unpopular with the US public and Trump's approval ratings have dipped to around 31 per cent, less than two weeks before the midterm elections, with his Republican Party at risk of losing control of Congress amid voter frustration with high prices.

In an effort to reduce the cost of fuel, Trump this month struck a deal with Vladimir Putin to allow the sale of Russian diesel after years of sanctions, triggering a backlash from European and Ukrainian leaders who warned that revenue from the sales would give Moscow a lifeline to extend its war against Ukraine.

Waltz, who as a member of Congress in 2024 had pushed for the US to support the Ukrainian government, justified Trump's deal as necessary to offset the "global shortage of refined products" that has hit industries "from aviation to farmers" this year. "It's causing a humanitarian crisis in east Africa. It's a lack of fertiliser," he said.

Trump is "balancing the needs of the world in terms of energy, in this case, diesel," he added.

Waltz suggested the cash would also serve as "an incentive for the Russians to come to the table in a meaningful way" to end the war.

Democrats and some Republicans have urged Trump to focus on ending the Iran war with an agreement that returns the Strait of Hormuz to prewar shipping levels and allows the region's energy sector to rebuild.

But Waltz said the US will not have accomplished its strategic objectives in the conflict until it has disposed of Iran's highly enriched nuclear material and reached a "meaningful agreement on their domestic enrichment" with Tehran.

Waltz served briefly as Trump's national security adviser but was sacked last year after using the Signal messaging app to discuss sensitive military operations in a chat that inadvertently included a journalist.

As ambassador to the UN, Trump has charged him "with putting reforms in place, putting it on a diet, so to speak," Waltz said.

He told the FT the US has cut its funding of UN agencies in an effort to force "needed" reforms, including cuts to long-running peacekeeping missions, some of which "have been sitting around for 30, 40, 50 years" or "cost a billion dollars a year" and "are freezing conflicts in place" instead of resolving them.

"We're reforming the way peacekeeping is done," he said, adding Washington was seeking to end peacekeeping operations in Lebanon, Somalia and Western Sahara.

"We think it's time to go," Waltz said of the decades-long United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil), which has failed to prevent multiple wars between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hizbollah.

He added that the US government was in "active consultations" with France, Israel, Lebanon and others on what a future Lebanon peacekeeping mission could look like.

"But the current form Unifil will not continue, or, we do not believe it should continue."