Analysis: Trump won’t keep US in Iran ‘forever’ – but Washington’s timeline is conflicting

We’ve been hearing conflicting messages from the US over how long “Operation Epic Fury” will last.

Donald Trump initially suggested the military action in Iran could last “four or five weeks”, while Pete Hegseth, US secretary of defence, said the operation will not be an “endless war”.  

The US president later said hostilities could last “far longer” than his initial timeline and denied reports he would get “bored” of the operation, telling reporters: “There’s nothing boring about this.”

Then this morning, Trump boasted online that American weapons stockpiles were so large that any wars the US fought could be waged “forever”.

Reporting from Jerusalem, international correspondent Diana Magnay says Trump “might have been talking more broadly” but adds there has been “more ambiguity than certainty” from Washington over how long the Iran operation will last.

“When it is that the Israelis and the Americans would pull out and leave it to the Iranian people, as they’ve been saying, is unclear,” she says.

“I think Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, has given the most precise definition of what the actual goals for the Americans of this war are.

“He said they aim to reduce Iran’s short-range ballistic missile capabilities and to degrade their naval capabilities so that they don’t interrupt shipping anymore.”