President Donald Trump acknowledged the potential for a longer-term conflict in the Middle East, saying Monday that the goals of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran are to destroy the regime’s nuclear program, its navy and its stockpile of long-range missiles and capability of making more.
Offering his most detailed attempt yet at justifying the air campaign launched over the weekend, Trump said the U.S. military anticipated it would last “four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that.”
The president claimed, without offering evidence, that Iran had been close to developing missiles that could reach the U.S. itself.
“The 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,” Trump said in White House remarks at a Medal of Honor ceremony for veterans of World War II, Vietnam and Afghanistan.
Trump’s remarks followed the government’s first public briefing since Saturday’s attack, during which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the conflict was likely to cost more U.S. lives.
“This not a single overnight operation,” Caine said. “The objectives CENTCOM has been tasked with will be difficult and gritty work. We expect to take additional losses.”
The briefing came after three U.S. fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses during active combat in Iran overnight, according to U.S. Central Command. The crews survived.
Six U.S. service members were confirmed to have been killed in action, CENTCOM said Monday afternoon. The identities of the deceased had not been released.
The Associated Press, citing the Iranian Red Crescent Society, reported that the airstrike campaign has killed 555 people so far in Iran.
As the conflict widened, Iran launched drone and missile attacks against Israel and other U.S. allies in the region. Lebanon’s Iran-backed militant group, Hezbollah, mounted a retaliatory attack against Israel, which struck back, killing 31 people and wounding an estimated 149 more, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Cities in oil-rich Persian Gulf countries, including the United Arab Emirates’ Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and Doha, the capital city of Qatar, have been among the targets of Iran’s retaliatory drone and missile strikes.
Qatar shuttered the world’s largest liquefied natural gas export facility Monday after it was targeted by an Iranian drone, according to a statement form QatarEnergy.
Dubai International Airport, a global travel hub, grounded commercial airline flights in the wake of Saturday’s attacks. The Emirates airline, headquartered in Dubai, announced Monday it would resume operating a “limited number” of commercial flights. Others, including flydubai and Etihad Airways, followed suit.
On Monday afternoon, state television in Jordan reported that air raid sirens were sounding across the country. The U.S. Embassy in Amman also said in a post on X that all personnel temporarily evacuated due to a threat.
In addition, the State Department urged Americans to immediately leave more than a dozen countries in the Middle East, citing “serious safety risks.”
Trump, in his remarks, touted the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the initial wave of strikes Saturday. On social media over the weekend, he called for Iranians — many of whom have been brutalized by their government after a recent uprising against it — to “seize this moment” and overthrow the country’s theocratic regime, but he did not mention that as a goal of the war in his comments Monday.
Hegseth said the length of the war does not necessarily hinge on who takes power in Tehran.
“This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth declined to rule out the possibility of U.S. boots on the ground on Iran. He also refused to provide details on what military actions the U.S. could take if the conflict escalates.
Caine said Saturday’s strikes, which were launched without congressional authorization, were intended to destroy Iran’s ability to conduct any combat operations and to establish air superiority in the region.
Administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Hegseth, were briefing House and Senate leadership and chairs and ranking members of relevant committees Monday afternoon.
As he walked into the briefing, Rubio told reporters he didn’t “understand what the confusion is” regarding the reasons the U.S. went to war. The mission, he said, is neutralizing Iran’s navy to protect shipping, and eliminating its missile program, which he said Iran was using to fend off efforts to stymie its nuclear ambitions.
And if the Iranian people happened to rise up again and overthrow their government, the secretary of state said, “We would not be heartbroken.”
Afterward, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that the briefing “raised many more questions than it answered.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Mychael Schnell, Laura Barrón-López and Gillian Bagshaw contributed reporting.
