President Donald Trump praised the United States military Wednesday night during a speech updating the American people on the conflict with Iran, but he offered no new details on the operations.
Operation Epic Fury, a military campaign by the United States and Israel, commenced on Feb. 28 after attempts to negotiate a cessation of Iran’s efforts to acquire nuclear weapons failed. During the speech, Trump said that the “core strategic objectives” of the military operations were almost achieved. (RELATED: Trump Halts All Strikes On Iran Power Plants Amid Negotiations)
“As I stated in my announcement of Operation Epic Fury, our objectives are very simple and clear. We are systematically dismantling the regime’s ability to threaten America or project power outside of their borders,” Trump said. “That means eliminating Iran’s navy, which is now absolutely destroyed, hurting their air force and their missile program at levels never seen before, and annihilating their defense industrial base. We’ve done all of it. Their navy is gone, their air force is gone. Their missiles are just about used up or beaten.”
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“Taken together, these actions will… crush their ability to support terrorist proxies and deny them the ability to build a nuclear bomb,” Trump said. “Our armed forces have been extraordinary. There’s never been anything like it militarily. Everyone is talking about it. And tonight, I’m pleased to say that these core strategic objectives are nearing completion.”
Trump also paid tribute to the 13 Americans killed during the military operation. As of Wednesday evening, seven American military personnel had died from hostile action in Operation Epic Fury, with six others perishing in the crash of an Air Force KC-135R tanker. Trump also blamed Iranian attacks on shipping in the region for high gas prices, saying their actions proved the necessity of the military operation.
“Many Americans have been concerned to see the recent rise in gasoline prices here at home. This short-term increase has been entirely the result of the Iranian regime launching deranged terror attacks against commercial oil tankers and neighboring countries that have nothing to do with the conflict,” Trump said. “This is yet more proof that Iran can never be trusted with nuclear weapons. They will use them, and they will use them quickly. It would lead to decades of extortion, economic pain, and instability worse than we can ever imagine.” (RELATED: Pete Hegseth Pressed On Pentagon Requesting $200,000,000,000 For Iran War)
Trump also warned Iran’s current leadership to accept the terms he laid out, saying that if they did not, the United States would target Iran’s energy infrastructure.
“If there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously,” Trump said. “We have not hit their oil, even though that’s the easiest target of all because it would not give them even a small chance of survival or rebuilding, but we could hit it and it would be gone, and there’s not a thing they could do about it.”
Steve Witkoff, Trump’s Middle East envoy, said in a March 2 Fox News interview that Iranian negotiators declared the theocratic regime would keep enriching uranium and claimed to already possess enough material for nearly a dozen “dirty” weapons.
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