US General Caine warns Trump advisers airpower won't defeat Iran, seeks off-ramp as weapon stockpiles dwindle: Report

Washington, DC: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Dan Caine has spent recent weeks privately advising top US President Donald Trump administration officials that the United States must seek an "off-ramp" from the conflict with Iran.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, CNN reported that Caine believes escalating military options could backfire and that airpower alone is unlikely to achieve President Donald Trump's stated goals.

Characterising Caine's posture, one source stated bluntly, "Caine is looking for an off ramp," CNN reported.

On the other hand, US President Donald Trump on Thursday (local time) expressed confidence that the conflict involving Iran would end "pretty soon," saying that he believes the Islamic Republic "can't go much longer".

He also voiced optimism over ongoing negotiations related to the Strait of Hormuz, while reaffirming the commitment to prevent Iran from posessing a nuclear weapon.

Speaking to reporters at the Oval Office, Trump said: "When I started the very important excursion into the Islamic Republic of Iran, it was a very important excursion because they can't have a nuclear weapon, otherwise the whole world would get blown up. We're not gonna let that happen. Not only us, not only the Middle East, the whole world would have been... It would have been catastrophic. We had no choice... We will see those days pretty soon again, based on everything I see, as soon as the war ends. And I think the war's got to end pretty soon. I don't think they can go much longer."

Trump also expressed optimism about negotiations concerning the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world's most critical maritime trade routes for oil shipments.

On a possible agreement between the US and Iran, Trump said: "I don't want to say it has been... it's sort of open right now. We have a thing called the blockade headed up by the US Navy, and we control it.

"But they can always shoot something or drop a mine... if you have one mine sitting out there, you sort of mess things up because people don't want to take their billion-dollar boats and accidentally get hit by a mine.

"But I think we're doing very well. I am involved in the negotiations. I think we are doing fine... it could be soon."

Additionally, in an interview with Fox News, US Vice President JD Vance said the Trump administration would continue using military, economic and diplomatic tools to secure a favourable outcome while maintaining that Iran would never be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon.

Notably, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Tuesday rejected a media report claiming that the Pentagon's missile defence stockpiles had fallen to dangerously low levels.

In a post on X, Hegseth wrote, "That banner is NOT TRUE, @CNN. Shame on you. We don't hate the Fake News media enough."

His remarks came after CNN reported, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter, that the US military has exhausted nearly 80 per cent of its inventory of Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors and around half of its Patriot missile interceptors since the conflict with Iran began.

However, Iran's Acting Defence Minister Brigadier General Majid Ebn-e-Reza said the country's Armed Forces were fully prepared to counter any external threat, stressing that Iran's military readiness was backed by its domestic defence industry.

Iran's top negotiator and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, on the other hand, accused Washington of pursuing "theatre diplomacy" and rejected what he described as US pressure tactics.

The developments come amid continued uncertainty over renewed US-Iran diplomacy following the collapse of the 14-point Memorandum of Understanding signed in June to halt hostilities.