Trump Says Iran War Could Last Four Weeks, Signals Openness to Talks
President Trump said Sunday the Iran conflict could last up to four weeks while simultaneously expressing willingness to speak with Iran's new leadership after Khamenei's death.
Trump Sets Four-Week Timeline for Iran War, Leaves Door Open for Diplomacy
President Donald Trump said Sunday the military campaign in Iran could last as long as four weeks. In a video posted to his Truth Social account on Sunday evening, Trump said he believed Iran's new leadership would need time to emerge before meaningful diplomacy could begin, but he expressed willingness to engage. "I'm open to talking to whoever takes over," Trump said in remarks broadcast by multiple news networks.
The statement came as US Central Command confirmed the deaths of three American service members — the first US combat fatalities of the operation — and as Iranian missiles continued to strike US military bases across the Gulf. Trump acknowledged the deaths, saying: "Sadly, there will likely be more before it ends. That's the way it is."
The president defended the strikes vigorously. He argued that an Iranian regime armed with long-range missiles capable of reaching American cities would represent an unacceptable threat to US national security. He did not specify what conditions Iran would need to meet for combat operations to cease, and no formal ceasefire offer has been communicated through diplomatic channels.
Questions Mount Over US Endgame in Iran
With Khamenei dead and Iran's retaliatory capacity still largely intact, the central question gripping Washington is what exactly victory looks like. Trump said in the Truth Social video that the goal is to prevent Iran from ever threatening America with long-range missiles — a formulation broad enough to justify almost unlimited military action, or almost none at all, depending on how it is interpreted.
Senior administration officials told the Wall Street Journal that the US is not seeking "occupation" of Iran and is not working to install a new government. But the Pentagon's targeting list — which reportedly included Khamenei himself, senior IRGC commanders, missile storage facilities, and nuclear infrastructure — suggests the operation's scope goes well beyond a limited punitive strike.
According to Ret. Gen. Frank McKenzie, former CENTCOM commander, "When you kill the supreme leader, you are in the regime-change business whether you say you are or not. The gap between stated and actual objectives here is extremely wide, and that gap is going to create serious strategic problems."
Iran Faces Leadership Vacuum Amid Active War
Inside Iran, the leadership succession process has begun under conditions of extraordinary stress. The Assembly of Experts — the 88-member clerical body responsible for selecting a new supreme leader — has reportedly convened in emergency session. No candidate has been publicly named, and multiple sources inside Iran told Reuters that senior clergy disagree sharply about the right path forward.
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian assumed emergency executive authority Sunday, ordering the continuation of retaliatory strikes under IRGC command while simultaneously reaching out to Turkey and Oman — two countries with existing diplomatic channels to Washington — to explore whether any basis for a ceasefire exists.
Whether Trump's stated openness to talks is a genuine diplomatic opening or a tactical communication designed to fracture Iran's coalition of support globally remains unclear — and Iran's new supreme leader, whoever that proves to be, will face that ambiguity as their very first foreign policy decision.
