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By Brendan Cole and Toby Meyjes
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President Donald Trump has outlined the United States' four main objectives for the Iran War in his first national address since the conflict began at the end of February.
After the speech had concluded, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio summarized the goals in a post on X as "destroy their weapons factories, destroy their navy, destroy their air force" and "destroy their chances of ever having a nuclear weapon."
Rubio added: "The president’s leadership sends a message to the world that the United States will defend its people and its interests, and uphold peace through strength."
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Rubio's post followed Trump's speech on Wednesday night that lasted just under 20 minutes, in which the president said U.S. forces would "finish the job" soon and "core strategic objectives are nearing completion". He pledged to hit Iran "extremely hard over the next two to three weeks" and bring them "back to the Stone Ages".
Trump also said the United States' objectives are "very simple and clear" and the military was "systematically dismantling the regime’s ability to threaten America or reject power outside of their borders."
He added: "That means 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. We’ve done all of it. Their navy is gone. Their air force is gone. Their missiles are just about used up or beaten.
"Taken together, these actions will cripple Iran’s military, crush their ability to support terrorist proxies and deny them the ability to build a nuclear bomb," added Trump.
During his speech, Trump reiterated that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and said the Islamic Republic was building a vast arsenal of ballistic missiles that were a threat to the U.S. However, he did not mention the possibility of sending U.S. ground troops into Iran amid a large military build-up in the region.
The president also did not refer to any progress in negotiations with Iran, despite his previous insistence that Tehran wanted to do a deal. Nor did he bring up his April 6 deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz that Iran has effectively blocked, causing energy market turmoil.
Global markets fell on Thursday after Trump’s speech gave no clear sign of when the war would end, with oil prices climbing six percent Thursday to over $107 a barrel for Brent crude. They had fallen earlier this week amid hopes of de-escalation.
Trump also did not refer to NATO whose members has criticized for what he says is a reluctance to help the U.S. war effort. An interview published earlier in the day saw him tease the prospect of withdrawing the U.S. from the alliance.
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