(Washington) Donald Trump tried on Sunday to justify the military operation against Iran by the need to ensure America’s long-term security, and wanted to prepare public opinion for additional losses, after the death of three soldiers.
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“Unfortunately there will probably be more before the end. That’s how it is,” the American president said in a video published on his Truth Social platform, reacting to the news of these deaths.
He affirmed, in a short speech with a solemn tone: “America will avenge its dead and deal the most severe blow on the terrorists who have declared war against, fundamentally, civilization. »
“Military operations will continue at full strength for the time being and will continue until all our objectives are achieved. We have very strong goals,” he said from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida where he spent the weekend.
He returned Sunday evening around 6:20 p.m. (Eastern time) to the Washington area.
“Four weeks”
The American president has not addressed the nation directly since the start of the war. He published two video messages, announced the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a written message on Truth Social, and had several telephone interviews with journalists, who reported his remarks.
“It’s always been a four-week process, so – as strong as (Iran) is, the country is big, it will take four weeks or less,” the US president said in a telephone interview with the British daily Daily Mail.
“It’s moving quickly. No one can believe our success, 48 leaders were eliminated at once,” said the American president, according to a Fox News journalist who spoke to him on the phone and who transcribed his remarks on her X account.
Donald Trump told NBC News to expect “casualties.”
“We have three, but we expect some losses, but in the end it will be a good deal for the world,” the US president said in a telephone interview.
“It could happen again,” he told the Daily Mail of these US losses.
“We are carrying out this massive operation not only to ensure our safety here and now, but also for our children and their children,” he said in his video message on Sunday.
“An Iranian regime equipped with long-range missiles and atomic weapons would be a serious threat to any American,” he said.
Sunken ships–
“I have just been informed that we have destroyed and sunk 9 Iranian ships, some of them relatively large and important. We are tracking down the rest,” he also wrote on his Truth Social network. “In a separate attack, we largely destroyed their maritime headquarters. »
Donald Trump has not appeared in public since the start of the war, announced in a recorded video message, nor has the head of the Pentagon Pete Hegseth or the head of diplomacy Marco Rubio.
The latter will go to Congress on Tuesday to inform parliamentarians of the progress of the military operation against Iran, the White House announced on Sunday.
The Democratic opposition complained of not having been consulted before its launch.
In an interview with a journalist from the financial news channel CNBC, Donald Trump assured Sunday that the operation was “progressing very well” and “faster than expected”.
B-2 stealth bombers took part in the bombings, the US military command for the Middle East, Centcom, said on Sunday. These are the same devices that struck uranium enrichment facilities in Iran last June.
Iranian leaders “want to talk, and I agreed to talk, so I will talk to them,” the American president also indicated to a journalist from The Atlantic.
“Most of these people are dead. Some of those with whom we were in negotiations are dead,” he added, judging that the Iranian leaders “wanted to play it too finely.”
