President Donald Trump voiced confidence Wednesday that the war in Iran is drawing to a close, predicting two to three weeks of heavy strikes from the United States before Iran is bombed “back to the stone ages.”
Trump addressed the nation in prime time on Wednesday evening, where he claimed that his campaign was nearing completion of its strategic objectives: destroying Iran’s navy, air force, and missile capabilities, preventing Iran from funding terrorist proxy groups, and preventing Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
“Our armed forces have been extraordinary. There’s never been anything like it,” he declared before honoring the 13 American service members killed in Iran’s retaliatory attacks. “We are going to finish the job. And we’re going to finish it very fast. We’re getting very close.”
“We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” Trump continued. “We are going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong.”
The president, who has previously claimed that regime change was not a goal of Operation Epic Fury, did acknowledge that “regime change has occurred because all of their original leaders are dead.”
“The new group is less radical and much more reasonable,” he continued, citing recent peace talks, warning that failure by Iranian officials to meet the United States’ terms would result in simultaneous strikes on “each and every one of their electric generating plants.”
Still, Trump subtly addressed the rising energy costs the war is presenting to both American consumers and allies. Though the president has expressed significant frustration with European and Asian countries’ refusal to assist the U.S. in the war effort, he suggested countries struggling with increased oil and gas costs should instead “buy oil from the United States of America.”
Furthermore, he again pressed those countries to “go to the Strait [of Hormuz] and just take it, protect it, and use it for yourselves.”
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“Iran has been essentially decimated. The hard part is done, so it should be easy, and in any event, when this conflict is over, the strait will open up naturally,” he continued. “They are going to want to be able to sell oil, because that is all they have to try and rebuild. It will resume the flowing and the gas prices will rapidly come back down. Stock prices will rapidly go back up.”
You can watch Trump’s comments in full below.
