The US will ‘hit each and every one of their electric generating plants’ if Tehran does not agree to a deal, president says in primetime address
The United States is gearing up to strike Iran “extremely hard” over the next two to three weeks, President Donald Trump said in a primetime address Wednesday, adding that the Islamic Republic’s oil infrastructure will be a target if the regime does not agree to a ceasefire deal.
“I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America’s military objectives shortly, very shortly. We’re going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks,” Trump said as he made the case for Operation Epic Fury directly to the people of the United States. “We’re going to bring them back to the stone ages where they belong.”
If the regime refuses to make a deal with the United States, Trump said, the U.S. military has its “eyes on key targets” that include the Islamic Republic’s electric plants, gas fields, and oil infrastructure.
“If there is no deal, we are going to hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously,” Trump said in his first direct address to the nation since the engagement began just over a month ago. “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. But we could hit it and it would be gone and there is not a thing they could do about it.”
Trump signaled that he has no intention of ending military operations before the United States achieves its “core strategic objectives,” which include dismantling Iran’s land and sea power, eradicating its stockpile of ballistic missiles, and ending its pursuit of nuclear arms.
With those goals in mind, Trump said, “we are going to finish the job and we’re going to finish it very fast.”
The president added that the U.S. military will continue to focus on “eliminating Iran’s navy, which is now absolutely destroyed, hurting their air force and their missile program at levels never seen before, and annihilating their defense industrial base.” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps “is being decimated as we speak,” he said, while the regime’s “weapons, factories, and rocket launchers are being blown to pieces.”
“These actions,” Trump said, “will cripple Iran militarily, crush their ability to support terrorist proxies, and deny them the ability to build a nuclear bomb.”
The president went on to note that the Islamic Republic began rebuilding its nuclear sites after last June’s strikes.
“The regime then sought to rebuild their nuclear program at a totally different location, making clear they had no intention of abandoning their pursuit of nuclear weapons,” he said.
Ongoing negotiations with Tehran have pursued the same goal. Trump’s 15-point peace plan would require Iran to give up its uranium stockpiles and close its nuclear facilities. Regime leaders have publicly balked at any discussions, but Trump has maintained that Iran’s remaining leadership is less radical than regime leaders under the late ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“Regime change was not our goal,” Trump said during his address. “We never said regime change, but regime change has occurred because of all of their original leaders’ death. They’re all dead. The new group is less radical and much more reasonable.”
One way or another, Trump said, “we’re going to finish it very fast.”
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