Haley: Trump has ‘come too far to stop now’ in Iran war

Former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley on Tuesday praised President Trump’s ongoing military operations against Iran, saying the U.S. has “come too far to stop now.”

“I think you finish it,” Haley continued in an interview with CNBC. “This is not Venezuela where you extract [former leader Nicolás] Maduro. This is something where, yes, we are, 75 percent of the job is done. I think it’s miraculous what our military has done.”

“I think the decisions that have been made have been good, but if you’re going to do it, do it right and finish it so that we never have to deal with the Iranian regime again,” Trump’s former 2024 presidential rival added.

The U.S. and Israel launched joint strikes against the Islamic Republic on Feb. 28 after failed nuclear negotiations. Trump has deployed more than 50,000 U.S. troops to the Middle East as part of this military effort, including an additional 2,000 paratroopers last week. 

The conflict has now stretched into a fifth week, nearing the end of the anticipated six-week maximum timeline the Trump administration provided at the start of Operation Epic Fury.

Several prominent Republican lawmakers have urged the president to bring an end to the fighting and pursue a peace deal with Iran, including known war hawk Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.). 

“Keep it up Mr President. Wind down the war and wind up efforts for an historic peace deal,” Graham wrote in a post on social platform X, in response to Trump’s Truth Social post about ongoing negotiations with Iran. 

Haley also acknowledged the economic difficulties posed by Iranian counterstrikes in the Persian Gulf states and restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz. Around a fifth of the world’s oil consumption flows through the channel, and its effective closure has sent the global price of crude oil skyrocketing.

“The effects that they did not expect, or I think that have posed to be the challenge is, obviously, the Strait of Hormuz,” she told CNBC. “And what you don’t want is for Iran to have a strong hold over that, and I think we’re seeing the ramifications of that is that we’ve got to make sure that that stays open and stop their mining capabilities in the process.”

Haley has previously been critical of the Trump administration’s foreign policy maneuvers, accusing the president of doing “exactly what [Russian President Vladimir] Putin wants” after Trump clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the beginning of his second term. 

In another interview with Fox News on Tuesday, the former U.N. ambassador warned that Russia could be the “biggest winner” after the Trump administration loosened sanctions on the sale of Russian oil already at sea and to Indian buyers. 

“Iran is going in the right direction,” Haley said.

The former White House hopeful added, “I think pulling back on Russia and putting pressure on China is going to be important and getting the regional allies and our European allies to understand that, look, we’re all dependent on this from a global economy, so let’s all step in and finish this.”