Washington, 2 March 2026 (dpa/MIA) - US President Donald Trump says the "big wave" of attacks on Iran in the current conflict is yet to come.

"We haven’t even started hitting them hard," Trump told CNN on Monday, adding: "The big wave hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon."

Trump told CNN in a nine-minute phone interview on Monday morning that the US military is "knocking the crap" out of Iran.

On how long the war might last, the president said: "I don’t want to see it go on too long. I always thought it would be four weeks. And we’re a little ahead of schedule."

Trump claimed it was unclear who was now leading the country.

"They don’t even know who’s leading them now," Trump said. “We went down 49” Iranian leaders, he asserted.

With more than four dozen Iranian leaders killed, "We don’t know who’s leading the country now," Trump added. "They don’t know who’s leading."

So far, the president said, "the biggest surprise" has been Iran’s attacks on Arab countries in the region: Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates

"We were surprised," Trump said. "We told them, ‘We’ve got this,’ and now they want to fight. And they’re aggressively fighting. They were going to be very little involved and now they insist on being involved."

Trump told The New York Post on Monday that he’s not ruling out sending US ground troops into Iran "if they were necessary."

At a press conference, the president said the US offensive in Iran could also continue for longer if necessary.

Photo: MIA archive