India, April 3 -- US President Donald Trump's first address on the war against Iran was an accumulation of all that he has said in recent weeks about Operation Epic Fury - that Iran cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons or ballistic missiles, that the US is winning, and America is set to achieve its objectives - but contained no mention of a ceasefire or an off-ramp. While claiming on the one hand that the US military has delivered "swift, decisive, overwhelming" victories on the battlefield, the command and control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been decimated and Iran's ability to launch drones and missiles has been dramatically curtailed, Trump insisted that the US will continue striking Iran "extremely hard over the next two to three weeks" even though regime change has supposedly occurred because of the death of Tehran's top leadership. The effect was virtually immediate - crude oil prices spiked and stock markets fell because of fears of a conflict that virtually no one wants will be prolonged further. Countries across the world, including India, are grappling with the harsh economic fallout of rising fuel and gas prices, and concerns are growing about the impact of a fertiliser shortage on the next crop cycle. Perhaps the most striking aspect of the US President's televised address was the complete disdain for the economic consequences or the pain countries in the Global South are facing, with Trump only making a cursory mention of rising fuel prices in the US and glossing over the pressures faced by global stock markets. A prolongation of this unnecessary war launched by Israel and the US will have ramifications for the Global South, which was looking to finally overcome the economic disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine. Merely asking the rest of the world to buy oil from the US or telling other countries to "build up some delayed courage" to take control of oil supplies is not a real prescription for all the ills caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. It is in India's interest to see that this war comes to an end for several key reasons, including restoration of energy supplies from West Asia and the welfare of the 10 million Indians living in the region. New Delhi needs to double down on the message that the time has come to find an off-ramp that restores stability and peace in a crucial part of the country's extended neighbourhood....