United States President Donald Trump says he took the decision to launch a war against Iran because it was the “last, best chance” to stop the country’s alleged nuclear bomb programme.
His statement comes after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said there were currently no American troops on the ground in Iran, but left the option open, saying “we’ll go as far as we need”.
“This was our last, best chance to strike, what we’re doing right now, and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime,” Trump said at the White House on Monday, March 2, 2026.
He added that the U.S. attack on Iran is meeting its goals ahead of schedule but also warned the war could go “far longer” than his initial estimates of about a month.
The president said: “We’re already substantially ahead of our time projections.
“From the beginning we projected four to five weeks, but we have capability to go far longer than that. We’ll do it.”
Trump also said he is not ruling out sending troops into Iran, while threatening a new, “big wave” of attacks.
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Trump added: “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.
“I say ‘probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary.”
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone to leaders of four Arab Gulf states on Monday, offering to use Moscow’s ties to Iran to try to help restore calm to the Middle East following U.S. and Israeli strikes, which he condemned.
In a series of calls with the leaders of the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Putin criticised the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, which the Kremlin described as “unprovoked aggression”, according to Reuters.
Earlier, the Kremlin said that Moscow remained in constant contact with the Iranian leadership.
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