WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said on Friday, October 23, that the United States could end the war with Iran quickly, but questioned whether Washington should seek a swift conclusion or allow the conflict to gradually wind down, Reuters reported.

Source: Reuters via Northland News Radio

"We could end it very quickly," Trump said. "Do we want to finish it off or just want to let it wither?"

Source: Reuters — Trump remarks, Oct 23, 2026

Speaking to reporters on the White House South Lawn as he left on a trip to Florida, Trump said oil is getting out through the Strait of Hormuz. "We are getting everything we want," he said — a claim about the strait's traffic and the war's course made by the president, reported here as his statement.

Source: Reuters via SRN News

The remarks gave no timetable, ceasefire terms or announcement of a deal, Reuters' report noted in substance: the president framed the choice as Washington's to make, without saying which course he had decided on.

Source: Reuters, Oct 23, 2026

They came on a day when energy markets were pricing the opposite risk — renewed escalation. Brent crude climbed past $117 a barrel, a six-month high, amid fears of fresh US-Israeli strikes on Iran, and October has been the worst month on record for attacks on commercial shipping in and around the Strait of Hormuz, according to Reuters reporting this week.

Source: Reuters reporting, Oct 23, 2026 (market and shipping context)

For the lakhs of Indian and Punjabi workers across the Gulf, the difference between those two paths — a negotiated or forced quick end, and a long withering conflict with the strait under threat — is not abstract: it runs through oil prices, flight routes, jobs and remittances. No Iranian response to Trump's Friday remarks had been reported in the wire coverage at the time of publication.

Source: Reuters reports, Oct 23, 2026