WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump delivered remarks to the press about the conflict with Iran Monday prior to recognizing three U.S. Army soldiers with the Medal of Honor at the White House.

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 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.”

His comments come after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke to widening concerns that the U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran could spiral into a protracted regional conflict by declaring, “This is not Iraq. This is not endless.”

Hegseth, along with Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held the Trump administration’s first news briefing since Saturday’s strikes. President Donald Trump, while he’s conducted a few phone interviews with individual reporters, has not taken questions on camera and only released two videos since the operation began.

Hegseth said the operation had a “clear, devastating, decisive mission” to “destroy the missile threat” from Iran, destroy its navy and “no nukes.”

“This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change and the world is better off for it,” Hegseth said.

The briefing comes as the conflict has intensified into a wider war in the region. Iran and its allied armed groups have launched missiles at Israel, Arab states and U.S. military targets in the Middle East.

Four American troops have been killed in action. Trump on Sunday predicted there would be more U.S. casualties.

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