Fears in Washington of a prolonged conflict in Iran are rising amid Iran’s Tuesday strikes against Arab Gulf states and Israel’s continuing attacks on Hezbollah military sites in southern and eastern Lebanon. Both President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth downplayed concerns over the duration of the war, with Trump saying Monday that the war is nearing completion.

Hegseth said at a press briefing at the Pentagon that the most intense day of strikes is yet to come.

Today will be, yet again, our most intense day of strikes inside Iran — the most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes,” Hegseth said, adding that comparisons between this conflict and earlier conflicts in the Middle East that turned into quagmires are inaccurate, while also criticizing the authoritarian regime in Iran.

“This is not 2003,” he said. “This is not endless nation-building under those types of quagmires we saw under Bush or Obama.”

“Our generation understands this fight,” he added. “For 47 years, these barbaric savages in the Iranian regime have murdered our brothers in arms, my guys, your guys, our guys, through their terrorist proxies and cowardly attacks. Now they race toward a nuclear bomb to hold the world hostage.”

Iran’s leaders are “desperate, scrambling,” he said, but the United States and its allies are “winning.” Asked about injuries to Iran’s newly appointed Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, Hegseth said that was “not something I can comment on right now.

Trump and the Pentagon sent mixed signals about the war’s duration. On Monday, Trump told CBS the war is almost at an end.

“The war is very complete, pretty much,” he said. “There’s nothing left in a military sense.”

But the Pentagon posted a video message on social media bearing the caption, “We have Only Just Begun to Fight.

In a “60 Minutes” interview Sunday, Hegseth said that the U.S. will decide the terms for ending the war, pointing to Trump’s demand for unconditional surrender from Iran.

“We’re fightin’ to win,” he said. “It means we set the terms. This is war. This is conflict. This is bringing your enemy to their knees. Now, whether they will have a ceremony in Tehran Square and surrender, that’s up to them.”

Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi struck a defiant tone Monday, saying Iran is prepared to continue to attack Israel.

Iran will fight “with our missiles as long as needed and as long as it takes,” he told PBS News.

Meanwhile, Trump has floated the idea of taking over the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has blocked. About 20 percent of the world’s oil is shipped through that crucial waterway. As a result, oil prices spiked briefly to $119 per barrel, the highest since 2022, when oil prices rose sharply as a result of the war between Russia and Ukraine.