US President Donald Trump has privately expressed growing frustration over the lack of progress in ending the conflict with Iran, with reports suggesting he is increasingly unhappy about the absence of a clear path towards a settlement as the war enters its fifth month.According to NBC News, Trump vented his anger during a meeting with senior aides last week over the military options available to the US and the failure to reach what one official described as an “endpoint” to the conflict. While the president has continued to project confidence in public, officials told the broadcaster that neither Trump nor his closest advisers are satisfied with the current situation.“The president is exasperated,” a Trump ally who has spoken with him in recent weeks told NBC News. “I don’t think he believed it was going to be this difficult to get the Iranians to agree to a deal. There was not a real strategy for how long or what they should do to get to the endpoint. He did not intend this to be a long, drawn-out war.”A US official also told the broadcaster that divisions have emerged within the administration over the next course of action, saying, “After all this time, there is no unity.” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denied reports that Trump had lost his temper during the meeting.The reports come as fighting intensified across the region. The US Central Command said American forces struck dozens of targets linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, including military command centres, missile and drone facilities, and coastal defence sites, after Iran launched missiles at a US base in Jordan.The conflict also spread beyond the immediate battlefield. An Iranian strike hit a Chinese company’s building in northern Kuwait, killing one worker, while Jordan intercepted five Iranian missiles. Drone attacks also set fire to two natural gas vessels at Egypt’s Damietta port, further raising fears that the conflict could widen.
