US President Donald Trump said in a televised speech early yesterday morning that the US military had nearly accomplished its goals in Iran, and vowed to bomb the country back into the ‘Stone Ages’.
Facing a war-wary American public, sliding approval ratings and pressure from some allies to outline his war aims in more precise and consistent terms, Trump said the US had destroyed Iran’s navy and air force, and crippled its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes.
But he declined to lay out a concrete plan to wind down the war, now in its fifth week, beyond saying that the US would finish the job ‘very fast’.
“We have all the cards,” Trump said from the White House in his first primetime address since the US and Israel launched the war on February 28. “They have none.”
He glossed over some major unresolved issues such as the status of Iran’s enriched uranium and access through the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for global oil supplies which Iran has effectively closed.
The strait, he said, would open ‘naturally’ once the war ended.
Stocks fell, the dollar firmed and oil rose shortly after Trump’s comments, reflecting widespread sentiment that the conflict is likely to drag on for some time.
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