WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said U.S. forces will “finish the job” in Iran soon as “core strategic objectives are nearing completion,” offering a full-throated defense of the war Wednesday night in his first national address since the conflict began more than a month ago.
Trump got a wide audience and a chance to articulate clear objectives for the war after weeks of changing goals and often contradictory messages about whether he’s winding down or ready to escalate military operations — even as Iran kept up its attacks on Israel and Persian Gulf neighbors and airstrikes pounded Tehran.
But he spent much of his time repeating some of the same things he said in recent weeks, while also suggesting that the U.S. was close to meeting its major military objectives in Iran and his estimated timeline for concluding operations within two to three weeks. He promised U.S. forces would continue to hit Iran very hard.
“For years, everyone has said that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons. But in the end, those are just words if you’re not willing to take action when the time comes,” Trump said.
The president said, “In these past four weeks our armed forces have delivered swift, decisive, overwhelming victories on the battlefield” and slammed previous decades of U.S. policy, saying previous presidents “made mistakes and I am correcting them.”
“The situation has been going on for 47 years and should’ve been handled long before I arrived in office,” he said.
Trump also acknowledged rising oil prices and volatile financial markets, but insisted those would be temporary.
Polling, meanwhile, show many Americans feel the U.S. military has gone too far in Iran — even as more American troops move into the region for a possible ground offensive. Trump opted not to deliver such an address closer to when the U.S. and Israel first launched attacks, and questions now remain about whether it is now too late for what he says to break through.
Iranian missile fire targeted Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and Israel just before Trump’s speech.
