U.S. President Donald Trump on May 4 said that the war with Iran could last another two to three weeks and said that the United States will ultimately win the conflict.
While speaking with radio host Hugh Hewitt, the president commented on the ongoing conflict with Iran amid a tenuous ceasefire and as the regime launched attacks against the United Arab Emirates and ships in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday.
"We’ve taken out much of what we’d have to do," he said, adding the war would last "probably another two weeks, two weeks, maybe three weeks."
The president then reiterated his stance that Tehran cannot be able to obtain a nuclear weapon and criticized a 2015 deal between the United States and Iran that he later scrapped in his first term in office.
The 2015 deal "was a shortcut to a nuclear weapon, and we would not have been able to live with that," he said. "They would have used it. We can’t allow this to happen."
On Tuesday morning, U.S. Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine told reporters at the Pentagon that Iran’s recent acts of aggression are below the threshold of “major combat operations.” That means Tehran, in the U.S. government's view, has not violated the tenuous ceasefire, he said.
“Since the ceasefire was announced, Iran has fired at commercial vessels nine times and seized two container ships, and they’ve attacked U.S. forces more than ten times, all below the threshold of restarting major combat operations at this point,” Caine said.
Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed those statements, saying, "No, the ceasefire is not over."
In mid-April, Trump announced a ceasefire with Iran and then directed the U.S. military to impose a blockade on Iranian ports, while over the past weekend, he directed the military to escort commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump also told Hewitt on Monday that he believed the United States would win or would ultimately be victorious.
“One way or the other, we win," he said.
"We either make the right deal, or we win very easily. From the military standpoint, we've already won that. You know, you've heard me say it a million times, and other people say it: [Iran] had 159 ships. ... Now, they have none. They're all at the bottom of the sea."
Iranian officials, however, said on Tuesday that they believe Iran is in control of the strait, a key waterway through which about a fifth of the world's oil and gas travels on a normal day.
A general with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Yadollah Javani, said through state-run Tasnim News Agency that the U.S. military will suffer defeat in the conflict. Meanwhile, state-run PressTV carried separate comments from Javani, who said the U.S. government "will not be able by any means to change the course and reverse it to before" Feb. 28, when the initial U.S.–Israeli strikes were launched against Iran.
Javani also said that vessels that Iran believes are connected to the United States or its allies will not be allowed to pass through the strait.
A day earlier, U.S. Central Command (CENTOM) head Adm. Brad Cooper told reporters that the military "eliminated" six Iranian small boats "quickly."