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President Trump branded a US ground invasion in Iran a “waste of time” and said Iran has “lost everything” – after Tehran’s foreign minister claimed the regime was “waiting” for American and Israeli forces.
Trump downplayed Abbas Araghchi’s claim as a “wasted comment” on Thursday night, telling NBC News, “They’ve lost their navy. They’ve lost everything they can lose.”
CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper revealed that more than 30 Iranian warships have been sunk or destroyed — including Iran’s prized vessel, the IRIS Shahid Soleimani, which left 87 sailors dead — since the US launched “Operation Epic Fury” last week.
Cooper said B-2 bombers dropped dozens of 2,000-pound bombs on buried ballistic missile launchers and US forces had hit Tehran’s version of Space Command.
“The US military is in the process of dismantling Iran’s missile production capability for the future,” Cooper said. “We’re not just hitting what they have. We’re destroying their ability to rebuild.”
The US attacked a drone carrier — named IRIS Shahid Bagheri — and set the vessel ablaze in its “mission to sink the entire Iranian navy.”
Israel’s military launched “a broad-scale wave of strikes” on Friday in Tehran and Beirut, where forces clashed with Hezbollah after Iran fired drones and missiles into Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain
Araghchi seemingly suggested Iran could “confront” American troops if the US launched a ground invasion of Iran.
“No, we are waiting for them,” he told NBC News after being probed on whether he was afraid of American forces. “Because we are confident that we can confront them, and that would be a big disaster for them.”
Trump repeated his calls for Iran’s leadership structure to be fully removed.
“We want to go in and clean out everything,” Trump told the outlet. “We don’t want someone who would rebuild over a 10-year period. We want them to have a good leader. We have some people who I think would do a good job.”
On Thursday, Trump addressed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba reportedly becoming the favorite to over the Iranian regime after the 56-year-old was hospitalized four times for “impotency.”
“They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight,” Trump told Axios. “Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me.”
Earlier this week, Trump told The Post that Operation Epic Fury was “way ahead of schedule,” but didn’t rule out sending US ground troops into Iran “if they were necessary.”
“I don’t have the yips with respect to boots on the ground — like every president says, ‘There will be no boots on the ground.’ I don’t say it,” Trump said. “I say ‘probably don’t need them,’ [or] ‘if they were necessary.’”
Trump told the Daily Mail on Sunday that he estimated the war would last “four weeks or so,” but hinted to The Post on Monday that the timeframe could be shortened.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth also didn’t put a precise date in terms of the operation.
“We’ve only just begun to hunt, dismantle, demoralize, destroy and defeat their capabilities,” he told reporters Wednesday.
“More and larger waves are coming. We are just getting started.
“We are accelerating, not decelerating. Iran’s capabilities are evaporating by the hour, while American strength grows fiercer, smarter and utterly dominant.”
Dan Caine, the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, revealed US forces will “expand inland, striking progressively deeper” into Iranian territory as the operation evolves.
English (US)