{"id":627354,"date":"2026-03-02T18:08:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T18:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/627354\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T18:08:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T18:08:16","slug":"hegseth-and-caine-hold-news-conference-as-iran-conflict-intensifies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/627354\/","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth and Caine hold news conference as Iran conflict intensifies"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke Monday to widening concerns that the U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran<\/a> could spiral into a protracted regional conflict by declaring, \u201cThis is not Iraq. This is not endless,\u201d even as he warned that more American casualties are likely<\/a> in the weeks ahead.<\/p>\n

Hegseth, along with Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held the Trump administration\u2019s first news briefing since Saturday\u2019s strikes<\/a>. President Donald Trump, while he\u2019s conducted a few phone interviews, instead released two videos<\/a> since the operation began and spoke briefly about it at an unrelated White House event Monday but did not take questions.<\/p>\n

Trump said Iran\u2019s conventional missile program \u201cwas growing rapidly and dramatically, and this posed a very clear, colossal threat to America and our forces stationed overseas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hegseth also said the operation had a \u201cdecisive mission\u201d to eliminate the threat of Iranian ballistic missiles, destroy the country\u2019s navy and ensure \u201cno nukes.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: Hegseth insists the Iran conflict is \u2018not endless\u2019 and declares, \u2018We fight to win\u2019\n <\/p>\n

At a news conference, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the Iran operation has a defined goal, unlike a past U.S. war.<\/p>\n

Trump administration officials, including Hegseth, Caine and Trump, have not suggested any exit plan or offered signs that the conflict would end anytime soon as the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei<\/a> cast doubt on the future of the Islamic Republic<\/a> and hurtled the region into broader instability.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a so-called regime-change war, but the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it,\u201d Hegseth said. He added that it was \u201cno nation-building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump, however, in his video statements, has urged members of Iran\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and military police to lay down their arms and for the Iranian people \u201cto take back your country.\u201d<\/p>\n

More American troop casualties expected<\/p>\n

The conflict has spiraled into the wider region, with Iran and its allied armed groups launching missiles at Israel, Arab states and U.S. military targets in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Four American troops have been killed in action, with Trump, Hegseth and Caine predicting more U.S. casualties. The top defense leaders did not offer details on the circumstances of the troops\u2019 deaths.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe grieve with you, and we will never forget you,\u201d Caine said of the troops killed and their family members.<\/p>\n

The latest sign of the escalating upheaval came when, the U.S. military said, ally Kuwait \u201cmistakenly shot down\u201d three American fighter jets<\/a> during a combat mission as Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles and drones were attacking. U.S. Central Command said all six pilots ejected safely from the American F-15E Strike Eagles and were in stable condition. <\/p>\n

Asked if there are boots on the ground now in Iran, Hegseth said, \u201cNo, but we\u2019re not going to go into the exercise of what we will or will not do.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it was \u201cfoolishness\u201d to expect U.S. officials to say publicly \u201chere\u2019s exactly how far we\u2019ll go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump told the New York Post on Monday he wasn\u2019t ruling out U.S. forces in Iran if \u201cthey were necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At the White House, Trump said the U.S. expected the mission could take four to five weeks but \u201cwe have the capability to go far longer than that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hegseth dismissed questions about the time frame at his briefing and said Trump had \u201clatitude\u201d to decide how long it would take.<\/p>\n

\u201cFour weeks, two weeks, six weeks,\u201d he said. \u201cIt could move up. It could move back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pentagon gives its justification for strikes<\/p>\n

In laying out a case for the strikes, Hegseth did not point to any imminent nuclear threat from Iran and said again that strikes by the U.S. and Israel last June \u201cobliterated their nuclear program to rubble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, Hegseth pointed to threats from other weaponry such as ballistic missiles and drones that justified the operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIran was building powerful missiles and drones to create a conventional shield for their nuclear blackmail ambitions,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cOur bases, our people, our allies, all in their crosshairs. Iran had a conventional gun to our head as they tried to lie their way to a nuclear bomb.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hegseth said that during negotiations with U.S. officials leading up to the attack, Iranian officials were \u201cstalling\u201d despite having \u201cevery chance to make a peaceful and sensible deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also justified the operation by describing Iran\u2019s government as having started the conflict from its inception, declaring that for 47 years it has \u201cwaged a savage, one-sided war against America.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a private briefing Sunday<\/a>, Trump administration officials told congressional staffers that U.S. intelligence did not suggest Iran was preparing to launch a preemptive strike against the U.S., three people familiar with the briefings said.<\/p>\n

Trump, a Republican, had said the objective of the mission was to eliminate \u201cimminent threats from the Iranian regime.\u201d And senior Trump administration officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, told reporters Saturday that there were indicators that the Iranians could launch a preemptive attack.<\/p>\n

Military doesn\u2019t specify Iran\u2019s nuclear sites as targets<\/p>\n

As with the attack that dropped massive bunker-buster bombs<\/a> on Iranian nuclear facilities last year, Caine said that the military also used B-2 stealth bombers in the new operation and that they made a 37-hour round trip. <\/p>\n

He said the penetrating bombs were dropped on Iranian underground facilities\u201d but did not specify that they were nuclear facilities. Nuclear facilities also were not among the types of targets on a list released by U.S. Central Command.<\/p>\n

Central Command said over the weekend that the military has struck more than 1,000 targets. Officials have said Israel and the U.S. have bombed Iranian missile sites and targeted its navy, claiming to have destroyed its headquarters and multiple warships.<\/p>\n

Caine on Monday referenced the use of cyber technologies in the strikes, which he said had \u201ceffectively disrupted communications and sensor networks\u201d that had left \u201cthe adversary without the ability to coordinate or respond effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without giving specifics, Caine said the military \u201cdelivered synchronized and layered effects designed to disrupt, degrade, deny and destroy Iran\u2019s ability to conduct and sustained combat operations on the U.S. side.\u201d<\/p>\n

In laying out a timeline, Caine said Trump gave the go-ahead order for the strikes at 3:38 p.m. EST on Friday. That meant the president gave the green light when he was aboard Air Force One heading to Texas with Republican Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn and actor Dennis Quaid.<\/p>\n

Hegseth and Caine spoke hours before Secretary of State Marco Rubio was slated to brief congressional leadership. Rubio, Hegseth, Caine and CIA Director John Ratcliffe also were set to brief the full membership of Congress on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writers Meg Kinnard in Charleston, S.C., Bill Barrow in Atlanta, David Klepper and Ben Finley in Washington, and Farnoush Amiri in New York contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke Monday to widening concerns that the U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":627355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[3492,3881,396,170927,69457,69,5755,57,83,3461,25227,22940,410,8132,50,375,6986,80,4411,67,370,132,68,96,93,107],"class_list":["post-627354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","category-us","tag-ali-khamenei","tag-ap-top-news","tag-bombings","tag-dan-caine","tag-dennis-quaid","tag-donald-trump","tag-drones","tag-general-news","tag-iran","tag-iran-government","tag-john-cornyn","tag-john-ratcliffe","tag-marco-rubio","tag-military-and-defense","tag-news","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-politics","tag-ted-cruz","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-war-and-unrest","tag-washington-news","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116160922120623026","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}