WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump suggested Monday that the war with Iran could last a month or more.
“It’s okay,” he continued, if even more time is needed to complete the operation, dismissing potential concerns about preparation even as he maintained that plans were ahead of schedule.
“We’re already substantially ahead of our time projections. But whatever the timing is, that’s fine,” Trump said during a Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House while honoring four service members who were killed in Iranian retaliatory strikes over the weekend. “Whatever it takes… From the beginning, we projected four to five weeks, but we have the capacity to last much longer.”
He said a four-week plan to remove Iran’s military leadership has already been completed. “And as you know, that was done in about an hour,” he said. “So we’re way ahead of schedule.”
Trump listed four goals for the U.S. military operation known as “Epic Fury”: degrade Iran’s missile capabilities, destroy Iran’s navy, ensure that it can never obtain a nuclear weapon, and contain its proxy forces by ensuring that Iran cannot “continue to arm, finance, and direct terrorist armies outside its borders.”
He said the army is prepared to continue the operation “as long as it is necessary.”
During his remarks, Trump also rejected what he said were suggestions that he might lose interest in the conflict if it continued beyond “a week or two,” saying, “I’m not bored.”
“There’s nothing boring about it,” Trump added.
He justified the timing of the attacks by saying this was “our last best chance” to attack the threat from the Iranian regime after talks to reach a deal collapsed last week.
“We thought we had a deal and they backed out,” he said.
Those talks took place in Geneva, where Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, told his American counterparts that Iran had an “inalienable right” to enrich uranium, a senior Trump administration official said. He told NBC News in an interview Sunday that he decided to strike when “they were unwilling to stop their nuclear research.”
Other military leaders have said the war with Iran will not be “endless,” although the full scale and scope of the mission remains unclear for now. Trump has also proposed different schedules.
Trump has acknowledged the possibility that combat forces may be needed.
Earlier on Monday, Trump refused to rule out the possibility of sending troops to Iran, suggesting in an interview with the New York Post that he might have troops on the ground. He said that while other leaders may be reluctant to do so, he is not.
“I have no problem with troops on the ground, as every president says, ‘There will be no troops on the ground.’ I’m not saying that,” Trump said.
In the same interview, when asked about the timeline, Trump predicted that the operation “was going to happen pretty quickly.”
