AP Photo/Mohsen Ganji A plume of smoke rises after a strike in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 2, 2026.

WASHINGTON DC — As the war in the Middle East spirals further, U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. has ” the capability to go far longer ” than its projected four to five week time frame for its military operations against Iran. The comment, made during a Medal of Honor ceremony, comes as the U.S. and Israel have continued pounding Iran since killing its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday.

Tehran and its allies have hit back against Israel, neighboring Gulf states, and targets critical to the world’s production of oil and natural gas. The intensity of the attacks and the lack of any apparent exit plan set the stage for a prolonged conflict with far-reaching consequences. At least 555 people have been killed in Iran so far by the U.S.-Israeli campaign, the Iranian Red Crescent Society said, and more than 130 cities across the country have come under attack. In Israel, 11 people have been killed, with 31 in Lebanon, according to authorities.

Israel says it intercepted a drone from Lebanon

Israel’s military said the hostile aircraft was intercepted and it is reviewing the incident. The army’s social media post did not blame the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah or any other party.

Iran-backed Hezbollah did not immediately issue a statement. The group had fired rockets late Sunday into northern Israel, sparking Israeli strikes throughout Lebanon that killed at least 31 people and displaced thousands. Drone hits at a fuel terminal in the UAE but fire is contained

Authorities in Abu Dhabi quickly responded to the drone attack on the Musaffah fuel terminal and got the fire under control. No injuries were reported and operations at the terminal were not affected, according to a statement by the Abu Dhabi Media Office posted on X.

Russia’s Putin speaks to Saudi crown prince

Vladimir Putin held a phone call Monday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss “the escalation in the Middle East as a result of American-Israeli armed aggression” against Iran, the Kremlin said.

Both “expressed serious concern over the real risks of the spreading of the conflict, which has already affected several Arab countries and is fraught with catastrophic consequences,” the Kremlin said in the readout of the call.

Putin “emphasized the urgent need to resolve the current extremely dangerous situation through political and diplomatic means,” and Prince Mohammed “expressed the opinion that Russia could play a positive, stabilizing role in these times, given its friendly relations with both Iran and the Persian Gulf countries,” the readout said.

Trump articulates his four objectives for the US war in Iran

The president said U.S. forces are out to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, wipe out its naval capacity, stop the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon and “ensuring that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm fund and directors armies outside of their borders.” He said U.S. attacks have already “knocked out” 10 ships, and that attacks on Iran’s missile capacity is ensuring they is destroyed while stopping “their capacity to produce brand ones.”

“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.

Trump says the US expected the Iran operation to take 4 to 5 weeks

The president said during an unrelated event at the White House that from the beginning, the U.S. has projected that time frame but “we have the capability to go far longer than that.” He then said he wouldn’t get “bored” of continuing the operation over such time. “I don’t get bored. There’s nothing boring about this.” Trump said the U.S. had also projected it would take four weeks to get rid of Iran’s military leadership, but that was quickly accomplished “so we’re ahead of schedule there.”

Iranian missiles filmed flying over Jerusalem skies

Interceptions by Israel’s advanced aerial defense system could be seen as the projectiles flying overhead suddenly lost course and began haphazardly falling before disappearing from view, leaving circles of smoke behind where they’d been hit by the interceptor missiles. Loud booms could be heard, intermingled with the barking of dogs and chirping of birds.

Jerusalemites were told to take shelter three times Monday morning and early afternoon, but sirens didn’t ring for much of the afternoon. Israeli military says airstrike in Beirut targeted a senior Hezbollah official. The strike occurred near the old compound of the Iranian embassy in Beirut’s Beir Hassan neighborhood.

Medal of Honor Ceremony begins at the White House

Four Greek F-16 fighter jets landed in Cyprus on Monday to bolster the country’s security, after a drone struck a U.K. military base. The drone strike caused minor damage, according to Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides. Another two drones flying in the direction of RAF Akrotiri shortly after midday Monday where intercepted after two British Typhoon fighter jets and another pair of F-35 warplanes were scrambled from the base.

Cyprus government spokesman Constantinos Letymbiotis posted on X that the arrival of the F-16s was done in close cooperation with Greece, which was also sending two navy frigates equipped with an anti-drone system.

The five reported casualties from Iranian strikes in Gulf nations have been foreign nationals. The countries hit — including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait — rely heavily on labor from South and Southeast Asia.

The Gulf state of Qatar, home to a key U.S. military base, said its air force had shot down two Iranian Sukhoi Su-24 bombers. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates said it intercepted nine ballistic and six cruise missiles and 148 drones on Monday. The Defense Ministry said it has repelled hundreds of Iranian drones and missiles since the attacks began on Saturday, in response to U.S.-Israeli bombardment. No fatalities were reported Monday in the UAE. Three people were killed in Iranian attacks on Sunday.

In a brief phone interview with the New York Post, the president said he wasn’t ruling out U.S. forces in Iran if “they were necessary.” “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 newspaper. “I say, ‘Probably don’t need them,’ (or) ‘if they were necessary.'”

Trump has said since the start of U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran that American military casualties were likely, as they are in any war, but he hasn’t committed to having U.S. forces on the ground long term. Before the strikes began, Vice President JD Vance told The Washington Post that there was “no chance” the U.S. would be pulled into a drawn out war in the Middle East.