White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday that President Donald Trump could end Operation Epic Fury without a surrender from Tehran.
Leavitt was asked by reporters at a press briefing on the official timeline for the war, given that Iranian state media was disputing Trump’s comments that the conflict was “very close to ending.” Last week, Trump wrote in a statement that he had ruled out a diplomatic accord with the Iranian government and that the military engagement would only end with Tehran’s “unconditional surrender.”
“When President Trump says that Iran is in a place of unconditional surrender, he’s not claiming the Iranian regime is going to come out and say that themselves. What the president means is that Iran’s threats will no longer be backed by a ballistic missile arsenal that protects them from building a nuclear bomb in their country,” Leavitt told reporters after ticking off operational updates regarding airstrikes against Iranian targets.
“I could make an empty threat, but if I have no actions to back it up, then it’s an empty threat, and so President Trump will determine when Iran is in a place of unconditional surrender, when they no longer pose a credible and direct threat to the United States of America and our allies,” she added.
Later in the briefing, the press secretary declared that Trump “will dictate the end of these operations when he deems that Iran no longer poses a credible threat to the United States of America.”
“Iran can talk all they want, and their words will be very empty when we’ve completely annihilated their navy, as we are doing, when we’ve taken out the threat of their ballistic missile capability, when we can firmly, finally ensure that they can no longer make a nuclear bomb to threaten the United States and our allies and our troops in the region,” she continued. “That’s what President Trump is ultimately seeking to do.”
TRUMP SAYS IRAN CONFLICT IS ‘GOING TO BE A SHORT-TERM EXCURSION’
Leavitt’s briefing can be seen in full below.
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