U.S. President Donald Trump has predicted the US could end its military operation in Iran within three weeks, but warned he wants to wipe out “every single thing” Tehran has.
“We’ll be leaving very soon,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, March 31.
The president mapped out a potential timeline, saying an end could come “within two weeks, maybe a couple of days longer to do the job. But we want to knock out every single thing they have.”
Trump vowed the operation would only end when the US feels Iran has been “put into the Stone Ages,” and said a deal doesn’t have to be reached for hostilities to end.
But, he warned that if peace talks fail, then strikes are on the table.
“We’ll hit some bridges, got a couple of nice bridges in mind,” he said.
More than 11,000 targets have been struck across Iran since the start of Operation Epic Fury on Feb. 28, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Dan Caine said
Trump vowed that his goal of ensuring Iran never has a nuclear weapon has been achieved.
“Maybe in a long time from now, [they’ll be] able to do a nuclear weapon, you’ll have a president [who] will be like me, and he will go there and knock the hell out of them again,” he added.
The president claimed regime change was also achieved, despite suggesting that it was not one of the primary aims.
“Now, regime change was not one of the things I had as a goal,” he said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also suggested the US could see the “finish line” when it comes to its Iranian operation.
“We can see the finish line. It’s not today, it’s not tomorrow, but it is coming,” he told Fox News star Sean Hannity on Tuesday.
Rubio claimed Iran was trying to become the next North Korea, armed with intercontinental missiles that could pose a serious threat to the US.
“They were aiming to become the next North Korea, except not a North Korea run by a regime that is troublesome and hard to understand, but an Iran run by radical Shia clerics with intercontinental missiles that could reach the mainland of the United States eventually,” he said.
Rubio also suggested that there is potential for a direct meeting between the US and Iran.
“There are messages being exchanged, there are talks going on. There is the potential for direct meeting at some point,” he said.
Iran has consistently denied reports that its negotiators are talking with the US.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the US will negotiate with bombs until Iran comes to the table.
“We don’t want to have to do more militarily than we have to, but I didn’t mean it flippantly when I said in the meantime we’ll negotiate with bombs,” he said. “Our job is to ensure that we compel Iran to realize that this new regime, this regime in charge, is in a better place if they make a deal.”
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