Washington, Apr 2: President Donald Trump on Wednesday night said US forces will ‘finish the job’ in Iran soon as ‘core strategic objectives are nearing completion’ during his prime-time address.
Trump claimed significant progress had been made towards achieving his goals in the war with Iran, which are to destroy the country’s missile production and Navy, ensure its proxies can no longer destabilise the region and guarantee Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon.
In his first address to the nation since the start of the Iran war, Trump says the military action is not for getting any of the country’s vast resources, including oil, but instead to help America’s allies.
“We’re now totally independent of the Middle East, and yet we are there to help,” he said. “We don’t have to be there. We don’t need their oil. We don’t need anything they have.”
But, he added, “we’re there to help our allies.”
Trump also stressed that Americans have significant gas and oil reserves of their own, seeking to allay fears on rising gas prices in the wake of the global energy crisis sparked by the blockade of Strait of Hormuz.
Arguing that the US has plenty of its own fuel stores because of his “drill baby, drill” attitude on domestic oil production, Trump said that the country produces more oil and gas than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined.
Speaking in the Cross Hall at the White House, Trump that Operation Epic Fury’s actions over the past month meant that Iran’s “ability to launch missiles and drones is dramatically curtailed, and their weapons factories and rocket launchers are being blown to pieces.”
Trump also said that the country’s “navy is gone, their air force is in ruins,” and the country’s leaders, “are now dead.”
He also said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “is being decimated as we speak.”
“In these past four weeks our armed forces have delivered swift, decisive, overwhelming victories on the battlefield,” Trump said.
Trump once again claimed “Iran has been essentially decimated” and that efforts by other nations to secure the Strait of Hormuz “should be easy,” data from independent observers does not support this claim.
The Republican president said Iran’s various nuclear sites are under “intense satellite surveillance and control” by the US as both Israeli and American forces have targeted the areas repeatedly, first last June, and more recently in the last month.
Despite saying that the joint strikes last summer had “obliterated” the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, Trump has made conflicting statements about the status of Tehran’s activity in the last several months.
“If we see them make a move, even a move for it, we will hit them with missiles very hard again,” Trump said.
The president also spoke of the decades-long history of tensions between the US and Iran, saying the dynamic should have “been handled” before his arrival at the White House. He was particularly critical of President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal, reiterating his longstanding derision of that framework.
“His Iran deal would have led to a colossal arsenal of massive nuclear weapons for Iran,” Trump said.
Iran long has insisted its nuclear program was peaceful. It had, however, been enriching uranium up to 60% purity, a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels.
Before the war, US intelligence agencies assessed that Iran had yet to begin a weapons program, but had “undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so.”
As part of his plea for patience from US voters, the president ticked through the timeline of American involvement in earlier conflicts.
“World War I lasted one year, seven months and five days,” he said. “World War II lasted for three years, eight months and 25 days.” He added references to Korea, Vietnam and Iraq — noting Vietnam’s nearly 20-year US commitment.
Action in Iran has spanned 32 days by comparison, Trump said, and been “so powerful, so brilliant” that “one of the most powerful countries” is “really no longer a threat.”
A recent AP-NORC poll found that six out of 10 US adults said Trump’s actions in Iran had gone too far.
While thousands of additional US troops have been deployed to the Middle East this week, there was no mention of them — or the thousands more who have already begun arriving there.
Trump also didn’t talk directly about NATO, at whose members he has fumed over refusal to help secure the Strait of Hormuz.
Earlier Wednesday, Trump said he was strongly considering pulling the United States out of NATO, ratcheting up his criticism of European leaders.
The war has sent petroleum prices soaring as Iran has effectively shut the strait, the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil passes.
On Wednesday night, Trump said Americans “don’t need” the strait and that the countries who do “must grab it and cherish it.” (AP)
