President Donald Trump said Monday the war with Iran was “very complete, pretty much,” then hours later said it would end “soon,” offering mixed signals as Washington signaled the campaign was still intensifying rather than clearly winding down. In a phone interview with CBS News, Trump said Iran had little military capacity left. At a later news conference at his Florida golf club, he said the United States was making “major strides” toward its objective and that “some people could say” those aims were largely complete.
Trump’s initial remarks about the war nearing an end also contradict comments by US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to the same network on Sunday, in which he described the US strikes as “just the beginning,” adding of Iran, “There’ll be a point where they’ll have no choice but to do that. They will surrender.”
At the same press conference, Trump also said that “all Iranian military targets have already been destroyed,” then went on to say, “Iran no longer has any means to fight. They have no navy, no communications, and no air power.”
He added, “They have exhausted all their resources. If you look, you will find they have nothing. There is nothing left in the military sense.”
Yet at that same conference, he described Iran’s military capabilities as severely diminished, not nonexistent, saying, “Most of its naval power has sunk.”
Speaking about Iranian ships, Trump also quickly raised the number of vessels he claimed the US military had sunk. While he told the US news network that 46 ships had been sunk, he said at the press conference that the military had sunk 51 ships.
A war of attrition
This contradiction and confusion in Trump’s remarks also underscored his lack of precision, according to a Reuters report published Tuesday, which said Iran is betting on its ability to withstand the United States and Israel, not only militarily but strategically, by turning the war into a harsh conflict that is difficult to sustain.
The report said Tehran is counting on drone and missile launches, wearing down US and Israeli defenses, disrupting vital energy routes as it does in the Strait of Hormuz, and shaking global markets hard enough to force Washington to back down first.
It added that despite the shock of the initial US-Israeli strikes and the loss of key figures, including former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Revolutionary Guard remains firmly in control, directing the battlefield, executing pre-prepared contingency plans, and dictating the war’s strategy and objectives.
Who decides when the war ends?
In that context, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the war on Iran “is not over yet,” stressing that “the continuing strikes are weakening the regime there.”
A statement from Netanyahu’s office on Tuesday quoted him as saying on Monday evening during a visit to the National Health Center, “We hope the Iranian people rid themselves of the yoke of tyranny, and in the end that is up to them. But there is no doubt that through the measures we have taken so far, we are breaking their bones, and we are not finished yet.”
For his part, Iranian Revolutionary Guard spokesperson Ali Mohammad Naini responded to Trump’s remarks about the war nearing an end, saying, “We are the ones who will determine when the war ends.”
The Iranian spokesman added that if US and Israeli attacks continue, Tehran will not allow “a single liter of oil” to be exported from the region.
An Iranian military spokesperson also denied Trump’s claims that Iran’s military capabilities had declined because of US and Israeli strikes targeting its military facilities, saying the number of missiles fired by the Islamic Republic is increasing compared with before.
Negotiations are no longer on the table
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told PBS News that US and Israeli plans for regime change in Iran had failed, stressing that his country is ready to continue missile attacks “as long as necessary.”
Araghchi added, “We are prepared to continue missile strikes against them as long as necessary and whenever necessary,” noting that negotiations with the United States “are no longer on the table” for Tehran.
The United States and Israel launched their assault on Iran at the start of last week, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and a number of Revolutionary Guard commanders. Tehran responded with a broad bombardment that included Tel Aviv, US bases, and US embassies in the Gulf and Middle East countries.
The assault came while negotiations were underway that had begun on Feb. 6 through Omani mediation to explore the chances of reaching an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, which the two allies are trying to end and prevent Tehran from completing.
The current operations are the second wave of US-Israeli strikes against Iran in a matter of months, after Israel and Iran fought a 12-day war in June, in which the United States joined by carrying out air strikes on Iran that it said were meant to deter Tehran from developing its nuclear program. Iran responded by firing missiles at the US Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar before Trump announced the war had ended by agreement.
