{"id":5209,"date":"2026-03-02T20:36:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T20:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/02\/trump-says-iran-war-projected-to-last-4-to-5-weeks-could-go-far-longer\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T20:36:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T20:36:33","slug":"trump-says-iran-war-projected-to-last-4-to-5-weeks-could-go-far-longer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/02\/trump-says-iran-war-projected-to-last-4-to-5-weeks-could-go-far-longer\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says Iran war projected to last 4 to 5 weeks, could go \u2018far longer\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p><strong>Washington, DC \u2013<\/strong> United States President Donald Trump has said the plan for the Iran war initially \u201cprojected four to five weeks\u201d, adding the US military has the \u201ccapability to go far longer than that\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on Monday from the White House, Trump outlined his administration\u2019s justification for going to war against Iran alongside Israel, saying that Iran posed \u201cgrave threats\u201d to the US, even as he again claimed that US strikes on Iran in June of last year led to the \u201cobliteration of Iran\u2019s nuclear programme\u201d.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/2\/qatarenergy-worlds-largest-lng-firm-halts-production-after-iran-attacks\">Gas prices soar as QatarEnergy halts LNG production after Iran attacks<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/2\/what-is-irans-military-strategy-how-it-has-changed-since-june-2025-war\">What is Iran\u2019s military strategy? How has it changed since June 2025 war?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2026\/3\/2\/hegseth-us-didnt-start-war-with-iran-but-we-are-finishing\">Hegseth: US didn\u2019t start war with Iran, but we are \u2018finishing it\u2019<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Trump also said that Iran\u2019s ballistic missile programme was \u201cgrowing rapidly and dramatically, and this posed a very clear, colossal threat to America and our forces stationed overseas\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe regime already had missiles capable of hitting Europe and our bases, both local and overseas, and would soon have had missiles capable of reaching our beautiful America,\u201d Trump said, repeating a claim his administration has repeatedly made in the run-up to Saturday\u2019s attack, for which US government officials have not provided any evidence.<\/p>\n<p>The statements were significant, with Trump appearing to pivot from claims that Iran posed an immediate threat to the US. Instead, he characterised the Iranian government as potentially posing a longer-term threat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe purpose of this fast-growing missile programme was to shield their nuclear weapon development and make it extraordinarily difficult for anyone to stop them from making these \u2013 highly forbidden by us \u2013 nuclear weapons,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn Iranian regime armed with long-range missiles and nuclear weapons would be an intolerable threat to the Middle East, but also to the American people,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur country itself would be under threat, and it was very nearly under threat,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n<p>Under both US domestic law and international law, attacks on a foreign country must be in response to an immediate threat. Under the US Constitution, only Congress can declare war, while the president can act unilaterally in response to an imminent threat.<\/p>\n<p>Trump has released two video speeches since the US and Israel began their attacks, including saying in a recorded message released yesterday that Iran had waged a \u201cwar against civilisation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He also predicted there would likely be more US military personnel deaths after the Pentagon confirmed the first three members of the military killed in the Middle East on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>To date, at least\u00a0 555 people have been killed in Iran, 13 have been killed in Lebanon, 10 killed in Israel, three killed in the United Arab Emirates, and two killed in Iraq, with Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait each reporting one death amid Iranian retaliations in the region.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, shortly after the Pentagon confirmed a fourth member of the US military had died, Trump did not give a clear timeline for the operations.<\/p>\n<p>He said \u201cRight from the beginning, we projected four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trump added that the military had originally projected four weeks to \u201cterminate the military leadership\u201d of Iran.<\/p>\n<p>To date, Iran\u2019s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and several other top officials, including the head of Iran\u2019s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), have been confirmed killed in US-Israeli strikes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re ahead of schedule there by a lot,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n<h3>\u2018America First\u2019 war?<\/h3>\n<p>Trump spoke shortly after Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth took questions from reporters for the first time since the attacks began.<\/p>\n<p>Hegseth appeared to respond to concerns from Trump\u2019s own \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d (MAGA) movement about entering into a prolonged war.<\/p>\n<p>Trump had vowed to end US interventionism during his presidential campaign, promising to focus on domestic needs over adventurism abroad.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is not Iraq. This is not endless,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis operation is a clear, devastating, decisive mission. Destroy the missile threat, destroy the navy, no nukes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIsrael has clear missions as well, for which we are grateful, capable partners,\u201d he said, without defining Israel\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n<p>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/1\/netanyahus-war-analysts-say-trumps-iran-strikes-benefit-israel-not-us\">long called<\/a> for the toppling of Iran\u2019s government<\/p>\n<p>Hegseth further vowed to fight the war \u201call on our terms, with maximum authorities, no stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy building exercise, no politically correct wars\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC \u2013 United States President Donald Trump has said the plan for the Iran war initially \u201cprojected four to five weeks\u201d, adding the US military has the \u201ccapability to go far longer than that\u201d. Speaking on Monday from the White House, Trump outlined his administration\u2019s justification for going to war against Iran alongside Israel, &#8230; <a title=\"Trump says Iran war projected to last 4 to 5 weeks, could go \u2018far longer\u2019\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/03\/02\/trump-says-iran-war-projected-to-last-4-to-5-weeks-could-go-far-longer\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Trump says Iran war projected to last 4 to 5 weeks, could go \u2018far longer\u2019\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}