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In his first address since the United States and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran, Donald Trump says his war on Iran could last longer than anticipated.
Spreading quickly throughout the region and rocking global financial markets, polls suggest most Americans are already opposed to the strikes.
After campaigning on a promise of 'no new wars', United States President Donald Trump says the war he started in Iran may last longer than anticipated.
"We have the strongest and most powerful, by far, military in the world. And we will easily prevail. We're already substantially ahead of our time projections. But whatever the time is, it's okay. Whatever it takes, we will always ... And we have, right from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks. But we have capability to go far longer than that. We'll do it. Whatever ... somebody said today, they said, oh, well, if the President wants to do it really quickly after that, he'll get bored. I don't get bored."
The strikes on Iran came as the United States alleged, without providing evidence, that there was an imminent nuclear threat from Iran.
Making his first public comments since launching the joint US-Israeli strikes, he says the first objective is to destroy Iran's missile capabilities.
"Second, we're annihilating their neighbour. We've knocked out already ten ships. They're at the bottom of the sea. Third, we're ensuring that the world's number one sponsor of terror can never obtain a nuclear weapon. Never gonna have a nuclear weapon. And I said that from the beginning. They're never going to have a nuclear weapon. They were on the road to getting one legitimately through a deal that was signed foolishly by our country. And finally, we're ensuring that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, fund, and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders."]
The US-Israeli war on Iran expanded on multiple fronts in the days after the initial strikes, which killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Iranian Red Crescent says attacks on 131 Iranian cities have killed at least 555 people so far, with retaliatory attacks on Israel killing 11.
After four U-S service members were also killed, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth did not rule out the deployment of ground troops.
"I think it's one of those fallacies for a long time that this department or presidents or others should tell the American people, and our enemies, by the way, here's exactly what we'll do. Here's exactly how long we'll go. Here's exactly how far we'll go, here's what we're willing to do and not do, it's foolishness."
After virtual silence from the U-S President in the days following the initial strikes, criticism emerged from both Democrats and supporters of Mr Trump's Make America Great Again movement.
During his 2024 election campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly pledged to end all foreign wars and vowed he wouldn't get the U-S entrenched in any more.
According to multiple polls conducted in the wake of the strikes, around 60 per cent of Americans said they were not in support of the attacks.
Defending the operation, Pete Hegseth says this won't be anything like the war in Iraq.
"To the media outlets and political left screaming endless wars, stop. This is not Iraq. This is not endless. I was there for both. Our generation knows better and so does this president. He called the last 20 years of nation-building wars dumb. And he's right. This is the opposite. This operation is a clear, devastating, decisive mission. Destroy the missile threat. Destroy the Navy. No nukes.”
Ahead of the strikes, Donald Trump also urged Iranians to "take back" their country, widely interpreted as a call for regime change in the country.
During his visit to Capitol Hill, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the strikes were intended to prevent Iran from developing long-range missiles that, he argued, would be used to shield its nuclear program.
With the prevention of an immediate nuclear breakout provided as the initial rationale for the strikes, critics say the president is lacking a clear strategy.
Iran Project Director at the International Crisis Group, Ali Vaez, says the United States and Israel may have differing end goals with Iran.
“The Trump administration most likely wants a regime transformation outcome here, that now with the elimination of the supreme leader, whoever emerges on the top, would do a Venezuela type, Delcy Rodriguez's arrangement with the Trump administration in which they would accept US terms capitulate and start doing US's bidding without necessarily regime change. But it appears that Israel's objective is at minimum regime change, at best regime collapse or destabilisation of the country so that Iran would be internally focused and would not be able to challenge Israel in the region.”
On Monday, Oil and gas prices soared, stock markets mostly retreated, and the dollar rallied as the war shook financial markets across the globe.
The Iranian government has now announced the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20 per cent of the world's daily oil consumption passes.
With several ships targeted in the region and Iranian counterstrikes expanding to regional oil infrastructure, shipping companies halted traffic in the region.
Principal Middle East Analyst at Verisk Maplecroft Torbjorn Soltvedt says Iran may use escalation as a tactic to pressure the US economically.
“So at this stage, for Iran, it's all about ramping up the costs of this conflict. You know, for the Iranian authorities, you know, survival is a success at this stage. And what they can do is impose a heavy and economic cost as possible with the aim of the likes of the UAE and Saudi Arabia, other countries in the region, then potentially putting pressure on the US and Israel to de-escalate because the cost is becoming prohibitive.”
Jonathan Panikoff is the Director of the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council.
He says the level of support from the American people will depend on how quickly the United States achieves its goals.
"If we start to see very quickly US casualty numbers ticking up, if we start to see the Iranians having greater and greater success and no real indication that the regime is splintering or factions are forming or that the US and Israel have sufficiently undermined it, in other words, that in the end of the day, it's still going to remain in place, then I think very quickly, you're going to see the American people question what we're doing here, and especially Republicans and independents say this isn't what President Trump promised.”]]
