WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has warned Iran that US forces could “bring them back to the Stone Ages” within weeks if no deal is reached, declaring the country’s military “decimated” after a month of sustained strikes.
In a televised address on Wednesday (Local time), Trump said it had been “just one month since the United States military began Operation Epic Fury targeting the world’s number one state sponsor of terror, Iran, ” claiming rapid battlefield gains.
“Tonight, Iran’s Navy is gone. Their Air Force is in ruins. Their leaders… are now dead, ” he said, adding that Iran’s missile and drone capabilities had been “dramatically curtailed” and weapons facilities “blown to pieces.”
He framed the campaign as necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. “I have vowed that I would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon, ” Trump said, calling the regime “the most violent and thuggish regime on Earth.”
Referring to earlier US strikes, he said, “We totally obliterated those nuclear sites, ” citing “Operation Midnight Hammer, ” and claimed Iran had attempted to rebuild its programme elsewhere.