Trump’s flitting stance on Iran war fuels uncertainty

• Says invasion will ‘hardly last longer than a month’, refuses to rule out ‘boots on ground’
• Claims potential successors to Khamenei identified by Washington have also perished
• Larijani insists country prepared for long war; Tehran says over 500 targets hit, more than 550 Iranians killed in strikes
• Top US general claims air superiority over Iran; says more losses expected after six soldiers killed, three planes downed

WASHINGTON: Anyone trying to keep track of US President Donald Trump’s comments is bound to be confused by his constantly shifting stance on the invasion of Iran.

The US president, who has been on a media blitz ever since he ordered the strikes in the early hours of Saturday, has changed his tune so many times, it is hard to keep track.

Speaking to The Atlantic at 9.30am on Sunday, one day after launching the strikes that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and embroiled the region in war, President Trump said Tehran’s new leadership wants to talk with him and that he plans to do so.

By 5.30pm, however, the president had changed the goal back to full regime change, with America’s task being to clear the way for Iran’s people to tear down their rulers.

By Monday, he claimed that all possible leaders of a post-Khamenei Iran, identified by his administration, had all been killed.

“The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates,” he told ABC News. “It’s not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead.”

Later in the day, he told CNN, “I think it’s going very well… We’re knocking the crap out of them”.

On how long the war might last, the president said, “I don’t want to see it go on too long. I always thought it would be four weeks. And we’re a little ahead of schedule.”

He admitted that “the biggest surprise” was Iran’s attacks against Arab countries in the region: Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

On who might emerge to lead Iran, Trump said, “We don’t know who the leadership is. We don’t know who they’ll pick. Maybe they’ll get lucky and get someone who knows what they’re doing.”

Then, speaking at the White House East Room on Monday evening, he explained his decision to launch the strikes, saying it was the “last, best chance” to stop Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons programme.

This was in stark contrast to his ABC News interview, where he admitted that Tehran had made significant concessions. “A year ago, it would have been great to accept that deal for me,” he said on Sunday, “but we have become spoiled”.

He also conceded that an alleged Iranian plot against his life in 2024 had weighed on his decision. “I got him before he got me,” he said, referring to Khamenei. “They tried twice. Well, I got him first.”

Iran hits back

Iranian officials, in response, vowed to defend their country till the last. “We will fiercely defend ourselves and our six thousand years old civilization regardless of the costs and will make the enemies sorry for their miscalculation,” Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani wrote on X.

He maintained that said Iran would not negotiate with Trump, who had “delusional ambitions” and was now worried about US casualties.

Larijani also said that “Iran, unlike the United States, has prepared itself for a long war”.

Earlier, on Sunday, he had accused the US and Israel of trying to plunder and disintegrate Iran and warned “secessionist groups” of a harsh response if they attempted any action, according to state television.

Iran’s retaliatory strikes have so far targeted 500 sites linked to the US and Israel in the Middle East, the Revolutionary Guards said on the third day of fighting.

“Since the start of the conflict, the brave soldiers of the Iranian armed forces have attacked 60 strategic targets and 500 American military targets and targets of the Zionist regime (Israel),” the Guards said in a statement.

They also claimed to have launched more than 700 drones and hundreds of missiles.

The Iranian Red Crescent said Monday that “131 cities have been affected” by US-Israeli strikes “and, regrettably, 555 of our compatriots have been killed”. Iranian officials confirmed the killings of three Guards members and five army personnel.

Boots on the ground

In his latest remarks, Trump said US military operations that he set in motion on Friday were ahead of schedule, without providing details. He said he had projected the US campaign would last four to five weeks but that it could go longer.

Trump also refused to rule out sending ground troops. “I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground – like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it,” Trump told the New York Post.

The comments came shortly after Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also signalled that deploying troops inside Iran had not been ruled out.

Asked if there were already boots on the ground, Hegseth told a news conference: “We are not going into the exercise of (saying) what we will or will not do. President Trump ensures that our enemies understand we’ll go as far as we need to go to advance American interests. But we’re not dumb about it. You don’t have to roll 200,000 people in there and stay 20 years.”

As for how long the war will last, Hegseth said: “Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks, it could move up. It could move back.”

Air superiority

In the first Pentagon briefing since the conflict began, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told reporters it would take time to achieve US military objectives in Iran.

General Dan Caine, who spoke alongside Hegseth, said that air superiority had been achieved over Iran.

“This is not a single overnight operation. The military objectives that CENTCOM and the Joint Force have been tasked with will take some time to achieve, and in some cases will be difficult and gritty work,” Caine told reporters.

The military said six US service members had died in the Iran operations, while six service members were also injured when Kuwaiti air defences shot down three F-15 fighter jets, by mistake.

“We expect to take additional losses,” Caine told the briefing.

Published in Dawn, March 3rd, 2026