President Donald Trump has told the nation in a televised speech that the US military has nearly completed its goals in the Iran war.
He vowed to strike Iran “extremely hard” over the next two to three weeks and finish the job “very fast”, without setting any timeline for ending the conflict.
In his primetime address, Trump called for countries that receive oil through the Strait of Hormuz to show “courage” and seize the key waterway, which has been effectively closed by Iranian attacks since the conflict began.
The president is grappling with rocketing gas prices and sliding personal popularity ratings as the war continues into its fifth week and US midterm elections loom in November.
Wednesday night’s speech did little immediately to reassure global oil markets that disruption to the Strait of Hormuz shipping route will ease anytime soon.
The price of benchmark Brent crude was trading at about $100 a barrel before the president started speaking. Afterwards it rose to $105.
In the 20-minute speech from the White House, Trump said the US was “nearing completion” of its “core strategic objectives” in the conflict, and had “decimated” Iran’s navy drone and ballistic missile forces.
“Very shortly, we are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” Trump said.
However, he provided little insight into the state of what he described as “ongoing” discussions with Iran’s leadership, leaving open the possibility of hitting Iranian energy infrastructure if negotiations prove fruitless.
“If there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard, and probably simultaneously,” the US president said.
“We have not hit their oil, even though that’s the easiest target of all, because it would not give them even a small chance of survival or rebuilding.”
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Earlier in the day, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that Iran had asked for a ceasefire a claim that Iran’s foreign ministry quickly described as “false and baseless”.
In his speech on Wednesday night, as he has done several times in recent days, Trump called on US allies to do more to secure shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz.
He urged them to “build up some delayed courage”.
“Go to the Strait and just take it,” he added.
Trump made no specific mention of the future of the Nato alliance, after earlier telling the British newspaper the Telegraph that he’d reconsider the US role in what he described as a “paper tiger”.
His address to the nation came shortly after it emerged that Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte, who is known as “the Trump whisperer” because of his influence with the president, is planning to visit the White House next week.
The president’s political opponents were quick to criticize his speech. New York Democrat and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described the address as “rambling, disjointed and pathetic”.
“Donald Trump’s actions in Iran will be considered one of the greatest policy blunders in the history of our country, failing to articulate objectives, alienating allies, and ignoring the kitchen table problems Americans are facing,” Schumer wrote on X. “He is completely unfit to be Commander-in-Chief and the whole world knows it.”
According to an update by US Central Command on Wednesday, American forces have struck more than 12,300 targets across Iran since Operation Epic Fury began, including Iranian naval vessels and facilities, missile launchers and defense manufacturing plants.
But despite his claims of victory, Iranian attacks across the region continued on Wednesday, with authorities in both the United Arab Emirates and Qatar responding to missile and drone strikes.
In separate incidents, British troops said they brought down 10 Iranian drones in countries including Jordan, Bahrain and Cyprus.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll last week suggested that two-thirds of Americans believe the US should end the war quickly, even if it means not achieving Trump’s goals. In the survey, 60% of respondents disapproved of the military strikes on Iran, while 35% approved.
Crediblenesng.com
