United States President Donald Trump said during a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery that Washington did not start the war with Iran. He presented the current conflict as part of a longer confrontation between the two countries.
“America did not start a war with Iran. Iran has been waging war against America since 1979.”Trump hinted that the military conflict remains necessary, despite stating on Monday that the war was “almost over.” He said at the time that the question was now when the United States would end the hostilities, not whether it would do so.
President admits to “minor setbacks”
In his speech, Trump also said that the United States was “doing things that no one had previously thought possible.” He then added:
Most of the speech was devoted to veterans and fallen service members. Toward the end, however, the president used the subject of military service to defend his administration’s actions toward Iran. “The Independent” reports that Trump told those present that the United States had already won the war, with the only remaining question being when Washington would end it.
Washington and Tehran offer different versions of the conflict
Trump’s claim that the war has been ongoing since 1979 refers to the historic confrontation between the United States and Iran that began after the Islamic Revolution and the hostage crisis at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. However, the current large-scale hostilities began on February 28, 2026, when U.S. armed forces struck targets in Iran, according to the official American account of the operation.
Thus, in his remarks, Trump separated the historic confrontation from the question of who started the current war. The president presented the American actions as a response to a threat that had continued for decades, while the beginning of the current military operation itself is linked to the strikes ordered by Washington in February.
Sources: theguardian.com, the-independent.com, jpost.com