Name: Iran war will go on for as long as Trump decides, says Hegseth | DW News
Uploaded: 2026-03-10T17:08:33.000Z
Duration: 10 min 52 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Adverbs of degree

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the US Military will hit Iran even harder on Tuesday than it has in the previous 10 days of operation Epic Fury.

Sentences with advanced comparative

He told reporters in Washington that the war will go on for as long as President Donald Trump decides.

This comes a day after Trump said it could be over very soon without providing any details.

Top US General Dan Kaine spoke alongside Hegseth and said the destruction of Iran's navy was a top priority in the war.

Exe warned Iran that the US Attacks would only intensify as Iranian forces were degraded.

Today will be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran.

The most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes.

Intelligence more refined, better than ever.

President Trump has threatened death, fire and fury to Iran if it continues to block oil exports in the Strait of Hormuz.

But earlier he had asserted that the war was very far ahead of schedule and very complete.

After those remarks, the price of oil, which had surged way past $100 a barrel on Monday dipped to nearly $90.

Footage released by the US military shows a Tomahawk missile being launched towards Iran 11 days into operation Epic Fury.

Look, President Donald Trump referred to the war with Iran as a short term excursion which could soon be over.

Without being more specific, we're achieving major strides toward completing our military objective and some people could say they're pretty well complete.

We've wiped every single force in Iran out very completely.

Most of Iran's naval power power has been sunk.

Iran put you on a giant, but Iran says it will decide when the war is over.

That's according to a statement from Iran's Revolutionary Guard State tv.

The announcer also quoted the IRGC spokesperson as saying Iran's armed forces would not allow, quote, even one liter of oil to lead the region if the attacks on its territory continue.

The Strait of Hormuz remains effectively closed because of the conflict.

About one fifth of the world's oil goes through this key artery.

The chokehold on global oil supplies has sent consumer fuel prices soaring around the world.

Taking to his truce social site later, Trump warned if Iran does anything that stops the flow of oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America 20 times harder than they have been hit thus far.

Despite US And Israeli strikes, large rallies like this one into Iran have taken place across Iran in support of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's son, Mushtaba, the new supreme leader of Iran.

Trump, who wanted a say in selecting the new leader, says he's disappointed with the choice, saying it will only lead to more of the same problem for Iran.

Siavosz Jamie is a senior lecturer in modern Middle Eastern history at the University of St.

President Trump says the war could wrap up soon, but

at the same time, he's threatening strikes that would be, quote, unquote, 20 times harder.

How do you interpret that kind of mixed messaging?

Well, it seems that one of the key theaters of the war is starting to become the Strait of Hormuz.

We have to bear in mind that what we have at the moment in the strait isn't actually a physical blockade.

Iran is not putting physical obstacles to the transit of tankers in the Persian Gulf.

It is more the message that's put across that it would in some way impede or attack tankers trying to transit through.

And this, of course, had a ripple effect on the insurance markets and more.

It seems that this is going to become one of the important theaters.

We also heard that the French government is sending ships over to escort tankers.

But other than that, in terms of the military aspects, as you said in your report, Pete Hexa, the defense secretary, has indicated that the US Keeps striking today despite Donald Trump's remarks.

The Iranians claim that they have switched to a heavier warhead, at least a ton missile, in their own retaliatory attacks.

So at least today, we don't see any sign of a scaling back of military operations on both sides.

Now, from your perspective, what goals are the United States trying to achieve before bringing this war to an end?

That fuzziness remains because, for example, we haven't seen much in terms of attacks on Iran's nuclear installations in the past 10 days since this conflict started.

Quite unlike in June 2025, when they were targeted almost straight away by Israel at the beginning of that conflict.

And then, of course, in that specific attack by the Americans, we still haven't seen anything comparable to that yet in terms of bringing down the Islamic Republic as a political regime, we still don't have a very clear idea on whether Trump wants to do that.

And yesterday, again, he was not very enthusiastic about the idea of, for example, the former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi getting power, going to power.

He again stated that a Venezuela like scenario with Delcio Rodriguez is what he preferred for Iran.

So in some way maintaining the Islamic Republic.

Whereas Israel still seems to be adamant to bring down the Islamic Republic altogether and hasn't changed at all.

This position, of course, after the appointment of Moshtab Al Khamenei as the new supreme leader.

So there seems to be still quite a considerable difference between the two.

And as I said, we still don't see, for example, a focus on Iran's nuclear installations, which of course is something that comes up frequently in Trump's intended aims that would degrade the nuclear program and Iran's missile program.

So are you saying that the war aims of Israel, the war aims of the US Are not aligned?

I mean, particularly if you look at the comments made in Florida yesterday by President Trump on him trying to work with more amenable figures within the existing Islamic Republic while not being happy at all, as he put it, by the selection of Mushtabah Khamenei.

But on the other side, you don't see this at all.

On the Israeli side, the Israelis have never really claimed that they're after some form of a moderate Islamic republic, if you want.

What's still missing is they both called at various points in these 10 days for a popular uprising.

We still don't have a sign of that happening and we still don't see a clear commitment by a critical mass of people inside Iran to rise up on the cusp of this military campaign against the Islamic Republic that has yet to materialize.

Now, what kind of circumstances do you think could force Trump's hand to end the war?

And as a follow up, would Israel stop bombing as well?

Well, clearly, as I said, I think the focus now will be on the oil markets.

Trump calm, calm down the price of oil a little bit by his remarks that the conflict is going to end soon.

But he didn't really follow up with clear details.

He said that it's not probably going to be this week.

We have to see whether a solution is found to the standoff at the straight of Hormuz, which again is not really kinetic at the moment.

It's more of the question of the Iranian warnings and messaging persuading tankers not to cross.

navy or French Navy or anybody else steps in to escort the tankers and that calms down the oil markets, that could relieve a bit of the pressure economic pressure on Trump to bring the conflict to a quick end.

It also, of course, depends the extent to which Iran keeps shooting its missiles at American allies across the Middle east.

Whether the Persian Gulf states will will see a reduction in Iranian missile strikes or whether those will be targeted Israel.

As for Israel, I think its aims are separate from those of the Persian Gulf states or America.

And it's very unclear as to whether Israel will heed to such considerations.

Now, this war has already drawn in, as you just mentioned, nearly every country across the region.

What long term damage do you think will remain in even once the fighting stops?

Well, clearly so far this idea that Iran had messaged over the years that it would strike American targets and American allies across the region if its top leadership, including the late Ayatollah Khamenei, were targeted at the closest Strait of Hormuz, that remained rhetoric until 10 days ago, but

So now we have to see whether the Persian Gulf states will be able to will digest the fact that the Islamic Republic not only has missiles, not only messages its use, but

actually uses them against targets on their territory anyways, whether American military bases or, you know, civilian installations.

The relationship with Saudi Arabia will be soured as well after that rapprochement engineered by China a few years ago.

And of course, this leaves the unresolved issue of the Iran Israel conflict.

If the Islamic Republic survives this conflict, clearly it will be far more hardened in its approach towards Israel.

Siabush Khanjba Dami from the University of St. Andrews, thank you very much for that analysis.