{"id":340468,"date":"2026-03-15T12:52:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T12:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/340468\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T12:52:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T12:52:07","slug":"conflicting-us-statements-in-the-second-week-of-the-war-on-iran-a-timeline-us-israel-war-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/340468\/","title":{"rendered":"Conflicting US statements in the second week of the war on Iran \u2013 a timeline | US-Israel war on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the second week of the US\u2011Israel war on Iran, the Trump administration<\/a>\u2019s public statements about how long the conflict will last have grown increasingly inconsistent and, at times, contradictory.<\/p>\n

As the situation that has claimed the lives of 13 American service members, hundreds of civilians in Iran and Lebanon, and a dozen civilians in Israel persists, Trump and other officials have continued to espouse confusing information.<\/p>\n

The Guardian previously tracked<\/a> the statements during the first week of war. Here is a timeline of how things have shifted in the seven days after.<\/p>\n

Trump calls Operation Epic Fury a \u2018minor excursion\u2019<\/p>\n

7 March<\/p>\n

Talking to reporters aboard Air Force One<\/a>, the president characterised the war on Iran as a \u201cminor excursion\u201d that would make the world a safer place. However, he also said that he\u2019s seeking \u201cunconditional surrender\u201d from the Iranian regime to end the conflict. \u201cIt\u2019s when they cry uncle, or when they can\u2019t fight any longer,\u201d Trump said, when asked to explain what that looks like.<\/p>\n

Trump says the war is \u2018very complete, pretty much\u2019<\/p>\n

9 March<\/p>\n

In a CBS News phone interview<\/a>, Trump described the US\u2011Israeli campaign as \u201cvery complete\u201d, claiming Iran had \u201cno navy, no communications, no air force\u201d, and that its drones were \u201cbeing blown up all over the place\u201d. Oil prices, which had hit a four\u2011year high over the weekend, began to ease after his remarks.<\/p>\n

Hegseth touts \u2018most intense\u2019 day of strikes but repeats that the war is \u2018not endless\u2019<\/p>\n

10 March<\/p>\n

Hegseth said the US was carrying out the \u201cmost intense day of strikes inside Iran<\/a>\u201d, while again insisting the operation was \u201cnot endless\u201d and \u201cnot protracted\u201d. \u201cWe\u2019re not allowing mission creep,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trump says there is \u2018practically nothing left to target\u2019 and declares \u2018we won\u2019<\/p>\n

11 March<\/p>\n

In a brief interview with Axios<\/a>, Trump said the war would end \u201csoon\u201d, claiming there was \u201cpractically nothing left to target\u201d. He said the US was \u201cway ahead of the timetable\u201d and had inflicted more damage than expected \u201ceven in the original six\u2011week period\u201d.<\/p>\n

At a rally in northern Kentucky, he declared \u201cwe won\u201d, even as strikes continued. He later tempered the remark, saying the US still had \u201cto win this thing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump says the war in Iran is \u2018moving along very rapidly\u2019<\/p>\n

12 March<\/p>\n

At a Women\u2019s History Month event at the White House, Trump offered a more cautious assessment, saying only that the situation was \u201cmoving along very rapidly\u201d and that the Iranian regime was \u201cpaying a big price right now\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hegseth says Iran is now \u2018desperate and hiding\u2019 while repeating operation is not \u2018prolonged\u2019<\/p>\n

13 March<\/p>\n

At another Pentagon press conference<\/a>, Pete Hegseth said that Iran\u2019s military capabilities had been significantly degraded and claimed the regime \u201cdoes not have the ability to build any more weapons\u201d. He added that Iran\u2019s leadership is \u201cdesperate and hiding\u201d after noting the ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei is \u201clikely disfigured\u201d following the strike that killed his father and many members of his family. The defense secretary reiterated that \u201cprolonged timelines\u201d or \u201cnation building\u201d are not the aim of conflict.<\/p>\n

Trump says war on Iran will end \u2018when I feel it in my bones\u2019<\/p>\n

13 March<\/p>\n

Speaking to Fox News<\/a>, the president tried to limit concerns about the economy in the wake of the war on Iran, particularly the whipsawing price of oil. \u201cThis will bounce right back when it\u2019s over, and I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be long when it\u2019s over,\u201d he said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n

When asked when the end might be, Trump said it would ultimately be up to him: \u201cWhen I feel it in my bones.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the second week of the US\u2011Israel war on Iran, the Trump administration\u2019s public statements about how long…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-340468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}