In a speech addressing the American public, US President Donald Trump touts the “swift, decisive and overwhelming” blows that he says Iran has been dealt over the past four weeks of war with the United States and Israel, claiming “victories like few people have ever seen before” in the ongoing campaign.
“Tonight, Iran’s navy is gone, their air force is in ruins, their leaders, most of them… are now dead. Their command and control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is being decimated as we speak,” he says at the White House. “Their ability to launch missiles and drones is dramatically curtailed and their weapons factories and rocket launchers are being blown to pieces, very few of them left.”
Following the recent operation in Venezuela, which Trump notes that like the US has major oil reserves, he asserts America “is now totally independent of the Middle East and yet we are to help. We don’t need their oil, we don’t need anything they have. We are there to help our allies.”
“From the very first day I announced my presidency in 2015, I vowed that I would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” he emphasizes, saying the “fanatical” Islamic Republic has been chanting “death to America” and “death to Israel” since its founding in 1979. He also hits out at Iran over its role in numerous deadly attacks throughout the years, listing among them the October 7, 2023, onslaught against Israel by its Palestinian ally Hamas, while condemning Tehran for its recent brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.
“For these terrorists to have nuclear weapons would be an intolerable threat. The thuggish and most violent regime on earth would be free to carry out their campaigns of terror, coercion, conquest and mass murder from behind a nuclear shield. I will never let that happen.”
The US president touts the actions he has taken against Iran over the years, including ripping up the nuclear deal negotiated by his predecessor Barack Obama as well as the strike during his first term in 2020 that killed Iranian Quds Force Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who Trump calls an “evil genius, brilliant person, horrible human being however.”
“If he lived, we would probably be having a different conversation tonight,” he says of Soleimani.
Trump says that he preferred diplomacy, but the Iranian regime rejected his outreach, leading him to order the strikes on Iranian nuclear sites last June amid Israel’s war with Iran.
According to Trump, Iran subsequently sought to rebuild its nuclear program and was “right at the doorstep” of obtaining an atomic bomb.
“For years, everyone has said that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons, but in the end, those are just words if you’re not willing to take action when the time comes.”
“There has never been anything like it militarily, everyone is talking about it,” Trump adds in regard to the current military campaign, saying that the “core strategic objectives are nearing completion.”
“We are getting very close to finishing the job, and I want to thank our allies in the Middle East: Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait and Bahrain. They’ve been great and we will not let them get hurt or fail in any way shape or form.”