{"id":201284,"date":"2026-03-02T23:57:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/201284\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T23:57:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:57:10","slug":"trump-says-u-s-military-operations-in-iran-could-last-a-month-or-far-longer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/201284\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says U.S. military operations in Iran could last a month or ‘far longer’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0President Trump on Monday refused to box himself in on how long U.S. military operations will last in Iran, saying the conflict in the Middle East could stretch a month or potentially \u201cfar longer\u201d<\/a> as he frames the mission as one that is necessary to eliminate a \u201ccolossal threat\u201d to American interests.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever the time is, it\u2019s OK. Whatever it takes,\u201d Trump said at a White House event. \u201cRight from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks, but we have the capability to go far longer than that. We\u2019ll do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hours earlier, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the duration of the military operation remains fluid, and that Trump has \u201call the latitude in the world\u201d to determine how long the war in Iran will go on.<\/p>\n

\u201cFour weeks, two weeks, six weeks. It could move up. It could move back,\u201d Hegseth told reporters at a Pentagon news conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s shifting time frames and open-ended objectives<\/a> in Iran have deepened uncertainty around an expanding conflict in the Middle East, particularly as the death toll of American troops killed in action rose to six and officials warned of more U.S. casualties, as the \u201chardest hits are yet to come.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday that additional U.S. military forces are already moving into the region, and warned that the conflict will not be a \u201csingle, overnight operation\u201d and that he expects \u201cadditional losses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six U.S. fatalities<\/p>\n

The development came as military officials confirmed that three more American service members had been killed by Iranian counterattacks, and three American jets were mistakenly shot down in Kuwait in an \u201capparent friendly fire incident\u201d \u2014 and as airstrikes continued to fall across the Middle East, where missile defense systems were unable to intercept every attack and deaths mounted into the hundreds, officials said.<\/p>\n

As the U.S. and Israel continued to hammer Tehran and other targets across Iran and in Lebanon, retaliatory strikes by Iran and its allies, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, were reported in Israel as well as at U.S. facilities and other targets inside Bahrain, Cyprus, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and the United Arab Emirates, according to the Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, to Iran\u2019s east, Pakistan and Afghanistan were engaged in their own battles, further destabilizing the region.<\/p>\n

In addition to hundreds of people dead, including Iranian schoolchildren, other civilians and migrant workers in the Gulf, the fighting has impacted the world\u2019s production of oil and natural gas \u2014 disrupting tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz at the southern end of the Persian Gulf and causing oil prices to shoot up.<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia said it intercepted Iranian drones attacking an oil refinery near Dammam, with the refinery shutting down as a precaution, the AP reported. Iran denied targeting the facility.<\/p>\n

Air travel disrupted<\/p>\n

The war also disrupted air traffic globally, as major airports in the Gulf, including in Dubai, halted or radically scaled back flights. The travel interruptions rippled around the world, and airline stocks tumbled.<\/p>\n

Israel had implemented nationwide restrictions on activities as it fended off attacks from Iran and residents hid in bomb shelters. Iran reported strikes at multiple schools in the country had left young students dead.<\/p>\n

As the conflict unfolds in real time, Trump and Hegseth have refused to rule out sending American troops into Iran, and the president has signaled that the \u201cbig wave\u201d of military attacks is yet to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground. Like every president says, \u2018There will be no boots on the ground.\u2019 I don\u2019t say it,\u201d Trump told the New York Post on Monday<\/a>. \u201dI say, \u2018probably don\u2019t need them,\u2019 [or] \u2018if they were necessary.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked by a reporter whether U.S. troops were currently on the ground, Hegseth told reporters they were not, but then bristled at further questions about potential future deployments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy in the world would we tell you, the enemy or anybody, what we will do or will not do in pursuit of an objective?\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s objectives in the war have been equally hard to pinpoint. Trump said Saturday that the operation is aimed at razing Iran\u2019s military and nuclear capability and dismantling its theocratic regime, and at one point even told Iranians to overthrow its government.<\/p>\n

But on Monday, Trump said the goal is to eliminate the threats posed by the \u201csick and sinister regime\u201d but not the government itself. The White House also sent a statement that outlined a mission focused on destroying Iran\u2019s missiles, navy and nuclear program \u2014 not its leadership.<\/p>\n

Hegseth said the attacks in Iran are not part of a \u201cso-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change and the world is better off for it today.\u201d The U.S. and Israel attack on Saturday killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Monday afternoon that he did not understand what the \u201cconfusion\u201d was over the administration\u2019s goals, or its justification for striking.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me explain it to you,\u201d Rubio said. \u201cThe United States is conducting an operation to eliminate the threat of Iran\u2019s short-range ballistic missiles and the threat posed by their navy, particularly to naval assets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rubio said the U.S. had assessed that it had to strike Iran when it did because it was \u201cabundantly clear\u201d that if Iran was attacked by Israel, as the U.S. believed it was going to be, it would retaliate against U.S. facilities in the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were not going to sit there and absorb a blow before we responded,\u201d Rubio said. \u201cIf we stood and waited for that attack to come first, before we hit them, we would suffer much higher casualties, and so the president made the very wise decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Rubio said the \u201chardest hits are yet to come from the U.S. military\u201d and said he did not know how long the operation would last.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next phase will be even more punishing on Iran than it is right now,\u201d Rubio said. \u201cThe world will be a safer place when we are done with this operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Second or third place is dead\u2019<\/p>\n

In an interview with ABC News<\/a> on Sunday evening, Trump suggested his administration had considered some figures to replace Khamenei, but said those people are now dead.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates,\u201d Trump said. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration\u2019s messaging, meanwhile, was consistent in its vengeful rhetoric.<\/p>\n

Hegseth and Trump both warned that any threat to Americans would be met with force.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you kill Americans, if you threaten Americans anywhere on Earth, we will hunt you down without apology and without hesitation, we will kill you,\u201d Hegseth said. <\/p>\n

Kevan Harris, an associate professor of sociology who teaches courses on Iran and Middle East politics at the UCLA International Institute, said Iran has its own capabilities to fight back regionally, and is in a neighborhood of countries with their own capabilities, too \u2014 including Saudi Arabia and Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Middle East has more powers than just the United States as an actor,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael has its own foreign policy agenda,\u201d and has \u201cbasically been checking off the boxes\u201d with the assistance of the U.S. for the last few years, Harris said. But Israel\u2019s agenda differs from the U.S. agenda.<\/p>\n

Harris said a long misconception in \u201cthe way the U.S. reads Iran\u201d is the belief that Khamenei ruled the country alone, and that taking him out would create a massive leadership vacuum or a sharp shift in the nation\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n

While Khamenei was certainly an \u201cintransigent\u201d force in Iran, killing him won\u2019t \u201clead to a major shift inside the country,\u201d Harris said.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Radd, a political scientist and senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations, said whether the U.S. can get out of Iran on a relatively short timeline depends on whether those in power in Iran now are willing to negotiate terms that Khamenei and other leaders who have been killed rejected.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the remnants of the regime are ideologically committed to what they were under Khamenei,\u201d Radd said, he \u201ccan\u2019t see Trump backing down\u201d and would expect the war to rage on.<\/p>\n

Other leaders in Iran are fundamentalist and aligned with Khamenei, but given that the U.S. has shown a willingness and ability to capture and assassinate foreign leaders, they might back down out of self-preservation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the short term, there should be a wait-and-see approach as to what this reconstituted regime looks like,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As Trump navigates the conflict in the Middle East, he has justified the strikes as America\u2019s \u201clast best chance\u201d to eradicate the threat posed by the Iranian government after talks of a deal fell through last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought we had a deal, and they backed out,\u201d Trump said. \u201cYou can\u2019t deal with these people. You gotta do it the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a resolution up in the air, Trump seemed to be bothered by suggestions from unnamed people that he would lose interest if the conflict stretched for longer than two weeks. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t get bored,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing boring about it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0President Trump on Monday refused to box himself in on how long U.S. military operations will last in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93470,33594,93471,1520,19378,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,93469,9066,1024,3906,3020,1519,63215,430,2805],"class_list":["post-201284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-american-troop","tag-defense-secretary-pete-hegseth","tag-end-goal","tag-interview","tag-iran","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-medium-outlet","tag-middle-east","tag-monday","tag-month","tag-president-trump","tag-trump","tag-u-s-military-operation","tag-week","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}