Trump says US operation against Iran ahead of schedule. Planned 4-5 weeks, but could drag on

The US President Donald Trump said that the military operation "Epic Fury" against Iran is well ahead of schedule and will continue as long as necessary.

He said this at a briefing in Washington on March 2.

According to him, he initially predicted the operation would last four or five weeks, but now in the US "there are opportunities to extend it much longer".

Trump noted that the operation was "well ahead of schedule", as the plan was to eliminate Iranʼs military command for four weeks, but in practice everything happened "in about an hour".

The US president also noted that the operation against Iran was necessary because Tehran ignored US warnings about the inadmissibility of attempts to rebuild nuclear facilities destroyed during Operation Midnight Hammer elsewhere.

Trump says the current operation against Iran is the "last and best chance" for the United States to eliminate the threats emanating "from this sick and sinister regime."

The US President once again emphasized that the US goals in Iran are to destroy its missile capabilities (because they pose a threat to the US), its navy (he says that 10 Iranian ships have already been destroyed), and to ensure that Tehran never obtains nuclear weapons.

Before that, in a comment to the New York Post, Trump said that he did not rule out the possibility of sending US troops into Iran "if necessary".

War in the Middle East

In the past month, the US President Donald Trump has regularly threatened to attack Iran because the countries are deadlocked over the nuclear deal. On the morning of February 28, the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran.

Iran responded by attacking US bases in the Gulf states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE. Iran also attacked Israel with ballistic missiles. Some Iranian drones and missiles targeted infrastructure and residential areas in Arab countries.

That same evening, it was reported that Iranʼs Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a US-Israeli airstrike at his residence. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) reported that it was preparing "the most powerful offensive operation" in response.

The US President Donald Trump advised Iran not to retaliate and warned that if the US attacks, it will "strike with a force like the likes of which we have never seen before".

Trump later said that before launching the operation against Iran on February 28, the United States had identified who could take over power in the country. However, these candidates were killed in the first attack.

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