News
02/03/26
Iran campaign could last 4-5 weeks: Trump
Washington, 2 March (Argus) — The US is prepared for its military campaign
against Iran to last four to five weeks, but "we have capability to go far
longer than that", President Donald Trump said on Monday. Trump, who made the
remarks at the White House, claims his decision to attack Iran was justified
because Tehran's missile and nuclear programs posed an imminent threat to the US
and its allies in the region. He has also described his attack as retribution
for Iranian actions against the US since the establishment of the Islamic
Republic in 1979. Iran has retaliated against the US-Israeli attacks primarily
by targeting ships, port infrastructure, airports and energy installations in
the Mideast Gulf, in addition to US military bases. Iran's retaliatory attacks
against its neighbors came as a surprise, Trump said in a separate interview
with CNN on Monday. The Joint Maritime Information Center has raised the threat
level in the strait of Hormuz to "critical" in the wake of several attacks on
commercial vessels. Additional war risk premium rates in the Mideast Gulf have
surged to around 1pc of hull and machinery value. State-owned QatarEnergy has
halted production of LNG and associated products following drone attacks on
operating facilities in Ras Laffan and Mesaieed Industrial City. The US-flagged
tanker Stena Imperative , berthed in the Port of Bahrain, caught fire on Monday
after being hit by two unknown projectiles. State-controlled Saudi Aramco has
shut its 550,000 b/d Ras Tanura refinery on Saudi Arabia's east coast after it
was struck by debris from intercepted Iranian drones early on Monday. Trump
argued that Iran's attacks on Mideast Gulf Arab states prompted its leaders to
offer military support for the joint US-Israeli operation against Iran. Qatar
said on Monday its air force shot down two Iranian fighter jets. The front month
Nymex WTI crude contract was up by more than 5pc on Monday after retracing
initial gains made on attacks from the US and Israel on Iran. "What strikes me
most of all this morning is the stark disparity between the risks that are
facing global energy security because of this war in the Mideast Gulf and,
apparently, the expectations of both the Trump administration and a lot of
market participants," think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies
senior fellow Clayton Seigle said in a webcast on Monday. "Either the traders
and the administration know something that we don't on the analyst side, that
the situation is more benign than we're expecting, or we could be sleepwalking
into triple digit oil prices pretty soon," Seigle said. The senior civilian and
military chiefs at the Pentagon, in a briefing earlier on Monday, described the
US-Israeli military operation as proceeding as expected. The US military
operations against Iran at the moment are prioritizing elimination of Tehran's
long-range missile capacity, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, General Dan Caine
said. Trump's orders for the Pentagon are to "destroy Iranian offensive
missiles, destroy Iranian missile production, destroy their navy and other
security infrastructure, and they will never have nuclear weapons," defense
secretary Pete Hegseth said. "Our ambitions are not utopian," he said. "They are
realistic, scoped to our interests and the defense of our people and our
allies." Trump has offered Iran's military personnel 'immunity' if they
surrender and has called on the people of Iran to "take advantage of this
incredible opportunity", Hegseth said. "This is not Iraq," he said. "This is not
endless." Hegseth did not rule out the possibility that US ground troops might
be sent into Iran at some point. The Pentagon already is moving additional
military resources to the Middle East, Caine said. By Haik Gugarats Send
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