Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday (March 2, 2026) spoke to widening issues that the U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran might spiral right into a protracted regional battle by declaring, “This isn’t Iraq. This isn’t limitless.”
Mr. Hegseth, together with Air Drive Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers, held the Trump administration’s first information briefing since Saturday’s (February 28, 2026) strikes. U.S. President Donald Trump, whereas he’s carried out a couple of telephone interviews with particular person reporters, has not taken questions on digital camera and solely launched two movies because the operation started.
Mr. Hegseth mentioned the operation had a “clear, devastating, decisive mission” to “destroy the missile risk” from Iran, destroy its navy and “no nukes.”
“No silly guidelines of engagement, no nation constructing quagmire, no democracy constructing train, no politically appropriate wars. We struggle to win, and we don’t waste time or lives,” Mr. Hegseth mentioned.
Iran-Israel struggle LIVE: Comply with LIVE updates on March 2, 2026
Requested if there are at the moment boots on the bottom in Iran, Mr. Hegseth mentioned, “No, however we’re not going to enter the train of what we’ll or won’t do.” He mentioned it was “foolishness” to anticipate U.S. officers to say publicly “right here’s precisely how far we’ll go.”
He additionally recommended the U.S. was not looking for to alter the Iranian regime with the killing of Iranian Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“This isn’t a so-called regime change struggle, however the regime certain did change and the world is healthier off for it,” Mr. Hegseth mentioned.
The briefing comes because the battle has intensified right into a wider struggle within the area. Iran and its allied armed teams have launched missiles at Israel, Arab states and U.S. navy targets in West Asia.
4 American troops have been killed in motion. Mr. Trump on Sunday (March 1, 2026) predicted there can be extra U.S. casualties.
Gen. Caine on Monday (March 2, 2026) mentioned the U.S. anticipated to have further losses. “We grieve with you, and we’ll always remember you,” he mentioned of the members of the family of these killed.
The most recent signal of the escalating upheaval got here when U.S. ally Kuwait “mistakenly shot down” three American fighter jets throughout a fight mission as Iranian plane, ballistic missiles and drones had been attacking. U.S. Central Command mentioned all six pilots ejected safely from the American F-15E Strike Eagles and had been in steady situation.
U.S. officers haven’t supplied any exit plan or supplied indicators that the battle would finish anytime quickly, and Khamenei’s dying forged doubt on the way forward for the Islamic Republic and hurtled the area into broader instability.
In laying out a case for the strikes, Mr. Hegseth pointed to the Iranian regime as having began the battle from its inception, declaring that for 47 years it has “waged a savage, one-sided struggle in opposition to America.”
“Their struggle on Individuals has turn into our retribution in opposition to their ayatollah and his dying cult,” he mentioned.
He didn’t level to any risk of an imminent nuclear risk from Iran, and he mentioned once more that final summer time’s strikes by the U.S. and Israel “obliterated their nuclear program to rubble.”
As an alternative, Mr. Hegseth pointed to threats from different weaponry comparable to ballistic missiles and drones that justified the operation.
“Iran was constructing highly effective missiles and drones to create a traditional defend for his or her nuclear blackmail ambitions,” Mr. Hegseth mentioned.
He mentioned that in negotiations with U.S. officers main as much as the assault, Iranian officers had been “stalling.”
“The previous regime had each probability to make a peaceable and wise deal. However Tehran was not negotiating,” Mr. Hegseth mentioned.
Gen. Caine, in laying out a timeline for the operation, mentioned the President gave the go-ahead order for the strikes at 3:38 p.m. EST on Friday (February 28, 2026). That meant the President gave the sign when he was aboard Air Drive One heading to Texas with Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn and actor Dennis Quaid.
Mr. Trump, in an interview Sunday (March 1, 2026) with The New York Instances, mentioned the assault might final “4 to 5 weeks.”
Mr. Hegseth dismissed questions on the timeframe and mentioned, “President Trump has all of the latitude on the earth to speak about how lengthy it might or could not take. 4 weeks, two weeks, six weeks. It might transfer up. It might transfer again.”
The Republican president mentioned the U.S. and Israel had struck a whole bunch of targets already. That included Israel and the U.S. bombing Iranian missile websites and focused its navy, claiming to have destroyed its headquarters and a number of warships.
Gen. Caine mentioned that, as with the operation that dropped large bunker-buster bombs on Iranian nuclear services final yr, Epic Fury additionally utilized B-2 stealth bombers, which the chairman mentioned made a 37-hour spherical journey.
Gen. Caine a number of occasions referenced the usage of cyber applied sciences within the strikes, which he mentioned had “successfully disrupted communications and sensor networks,” leaving “the adversary with out the flexibility to coordinate or reply successfully.”
With out giving specifics, Gen. Caine mentioned the U.S. navy “delivered synchronized and layered results designed to disrupt, degrade, deny and destroy Iran’s means to conduct and sustained fight operations on the U.S. facet.”
The Iranian Purple Crescent Society mentioned at the very least 555 folks have been killed in Iran to date by the U.S.-Israeli marketing campaign. Eleven folks have been killed in Israel and 31 in Lebanon, in response to authorities there.
The information convention got here hours earlier than Secretary of State Marco Rubio was slated to transient congressional management on Monday (March 2, 2026).
Mr. Rubio, Mr. Hegseth, Gen. Caine and CIA Director John Ratcliffe had been additionally set to transient the total membership of Congress on Tuesday (March 3, 2026).
In a non-public briefing on Sunday (March 1, 2026), Trump administration officers informed congressional workers that U.S. intelligence didn’t recommend Iran was making ready to launch a preemptive strike in opposition to the U.S., three folks accustomed to the briefings mentioned.
The administration officers as an alternative acknowledged there was a extra normal risk within the area from Iran’s missiles and proxy forces, two of the folks mentioned. The third particular person, nonetheless, mentioned the administration emphasised that Iran’s missiles and proxy forces posed an imminent risk to U.S. personnel and allies within the area.
The data conveyed to the congressional workers contrasts with the message from Mr. Trump, who mentioned the target of the mission was to get rid of “imminent threats from the Iranian regime.”
Senior Trump administration officers, who like others weren’t authorised to remark publicly and spoke on the situation of anonymity, had informed reporters Saturday (February 28, 2026) that there have been indicators that the Iranians might launch a preemptive assault.