Earlier than the U.S. launched its army offensive in opposition to Iran on Saturday, President Trump had expressed frustration with the progress of talks about Iran’s nuclear program and deployed an “armada” to the Center East. However mentioned he had not mentioned a lot concerning the the reason why the U.S. would conduct a bombing marketing campaign in opposition to the regime.
Mr. Trump on Monday articulated the explanations the U.S. launched its assault on Iran, bombing over 1,000 targets within the opening days of what he has mentioned he expects to be a weeks-long warfare.
In his first reside public remarks on the operation, he provided 4 causes for the marketing campaign:
- Destroying Iran’s missile capabilities;
- Annihilating Iran’s navy;
- Stopping Iran from growing nuclear weapons;
- Guaranteeing the regime cannot proceed to arm, fund or direct “terrorist armies” outdoors its borders.
A senior administration official mentioned the operation would proceed till all 4 targets are achieved. The president has mentioned he expects the warfare to final 4 or 5 weeks, however administration officers say the operation might be accomplished eventually than the timeline estimated by Mr. Trump.
Here’s what the president and different high officers have mentioned about why the U.S. is putting Iran:
Imminent menace posed by Iran’s ballistic missiles
President Trump mentioned Saturday, hours after the offensive started, that his goal was “eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime.”
Iran’s “menacing actions straight endanger america, our troops, our bases abroad and our allies all through the world,” Mr. Trump mentioned in a temporary deal with he posted on Fact Social.
He mentioned that after the strikes on Iranian nuclear amenities final yr, the regime continued “growing lengthy vary missiles that may now threaten our excellent buddies and allies in Europe, our troops stationed abroad, and will quickly attain the American homeland.”
However a Protection Intelligence Company evaluation from final yr indicated that Tehran wouldn’t have intercontinental ballistic missiles able to reaching the U.S. till 2035.
On Saturday, senior Trump administration officers informed reporters that they “had indicators” that Iran may doubtlessly use typical missiles “preemptively, but when not, simultaneous” to any U.S. actions in opposition to the regime. The president “was not going to sit down again and wait to get hit first” and if he had, the “quantity of casualties and damages can be considerably greater” than if the U.S. acted preemptively, they mentioned.
Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth indicated Monday that the justification for the offensive was Iran’s “swelling arsenal of ballistic missiles and killer drones,” which he mentioned they had been utilizing to “create a standard defend for his or her nuclear blackmail ambitions.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio provided a barely totally different rationale on Monday, telling reporters the Trump administration determined to assault as a result of Israel was planning to strike Iran, and “we knew that that will precipitate an assault in opposition to American forces.” For that purpose, he mentioned, the U.S. selected to strike Iran “preemptively” to take out lots of its missiles.
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the highest Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, informed CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, “I noticed no proof that Iran was on the verge of launching any sort of preemptive strike in opposition to america of America.”
Warner is without doubt one of the “Gang of Eight” members of Congress who was briefed by Rubio earlier than the operation started. After one other briefing by Rubio on Monday, Warner mentioned he did not imagine Iran’s missiles posed an imminent menace to the U.S. — although they did pose a major menace to Israel.
“That is nonetheless a warfare of selection that has been acknowledged by others was dictated by Israel’s targets and timelines,” Warner mentioned.
Iran’s nuclear program
Negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program had been underway for weeks. Throughout his State of the Union deal with final week, Mr. Trump laid down a pink line.
“My desire is to unravel this downside by way of diplomacy, however one factor is definite: I’ll by no means permit the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terror — which they’re by far — to have a nuclear weapon,” he mentioned. “Cannot let that occur.”
On Friday, hours earlier than the strikes started, the Omani overseas minister, who was the mediator of these talks, mentioned “substantial progress” was being made and a deal was “inside our attain.” He informed CBS Information’ Margaret Brennan that Iran had agreed it would “by no means, ever have … nuclear materials that may create a bomb.”
However the identical day, the president informed reporters he wasn’t completely satisfied with how the talks had been progressing. “I am not pleased with the truth that they are not prepared to offer us what we’ve got to have,” he mentioned. “I am not thrilled with that.”
Mr. Trump demanded Iran cease enriching uranium. Iran has lengthy refused to surrender its enrichment capabilities, insisting this system is meant for peaceable functions, although in recent times, Iran has enriched uranium to close weapons-grade stage, properly past the purity ranges required for many peaceable makes use of.
“They wish to enrich a bit of bit. You do not have to complement when you could have that a lot oil,” Mr. Trump mentioned.
Senior administration officers indicated they didn’t imagine Iran was negotiating in good religion. They mentioned that “it was clear to us that they had been within the throes of rebuilding all that had been destroyed in Midnight Hammer,” the June operation that struck the regime’s nuclear amenities, and that Iran’s intent “was to protect their skill to do enrichment, in order that over time, they might use it for a nuclear bomb.” They concluded the president “had no selection” however to behave.
In asserting the assault on Iran early Saturday, Mr. Trump emphasised that “it has at all times been the coverage of america, particularly, my administration, that this terrorist regime can by no means have a nuclear weapon.”
He mentioned Iran had “rejected each alternative to resign their nuclear ambitions, and we will not take it anymore.”
The 2025 Worldwide Risk Evaluation revealed by the Protection Intelligence Company mentioned, “Iran nearly actually shouldn’t be producing nuclear weapons, however Iran has undertaken actions in recent times that higher place it to provide them, if it chooses to take action.”
Rubio informed reporters final week Iran was not at present enriching uranium.
On Sunday, in a second video, the president mentioned the army operation is “needed to make sure that Individuals won’t ever should face a radical, bloodthirsty terrorist regime armed with nuclear weapons and many threats.”
Destroying Iran’s navy
In his first Fact Social submit of the day Sunday, Mr. Trump wrote that he’d been informed “we’ve got destroyed and sunk 9 Iranian Naval Ships, a few of them comparatively giant and vital.” And, he added, “We’re going after the remaining — They may quickly be floating on the backside of the ocean, additionally!” The president mentioned that one other assault had destroyed the regime’s naval headquarters.
By Monday afternoon, CENTCOM mentioned that every one 12 of the ships the Iranian navy had within the Gulf of Oman had been destroyed. The regime had relied on its navy to throttle ship visitors by way of the Strait of Hormuz — an important passageway for transporting about 20% of the world’s oil and liquified pure gasoline.
The Iran warfare has introduced oil tanker visitors by way of the strait to a digital standstill. Transport giants Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd mentioned they had been suspending all shipments by way of the strait.
Oil costs spiked Monday on issues {that a} extended disruption of crude provides within the area may sharply enhance vitality prices, together with U.S. gasoline costs.
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps introduced Monday that the strait can be closed and mentioned it might “set on fireplace any ship that tries to go by way of the Strait of Hormuz.”
“We won’t permit a single drop of oil to depart the area,” the IRGC mentioned.
However as vitality analyst Kevin E-book of Clearview Vitality informed the AP, “Iran has basically two methods to shut the strait. One is to harass or assault ships, and the opposite is to put down mines. And with out a navy, each of these issues can be troublesome.”
Chopping off funding to Iran’s proxy terrorist teams
The president additionally said Monday that the offensive was supposed to make sure “the Iranian regime can’t proceed to arm, fund and direct terrorist armies outdoors of their borders.”
Iran was designated a state sponsor of terror by the U.S. State Division in 1984. The division’s most up-to-date nation report on terrorism, revealed in 2023, recognized the regime because the main state sponsor of terrorism, “facilitating a variety of terrorist and different illicit actions in america and globally.”
It said that Iran helps terrorism acts by way of proxies and companions that embrace Hezbollah in Lebanon, Ansar Allah (generally known as the Houthis) in Yemen, Hamas within the Palestinian territories, and teams that function in Bahrain, Iraq, Syria and elsewhere.
Hamas carried out a terrorist assault on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed 1,200 folks in Israel and took 251 hostage, initiating a warfare with Israel that lasted a bit of over two years. A ceasefire in Gaza is now in its second part.
Houthis in Yemen in late 2023 attacked transport lanes within the Crimson Sea, “considerably disrupting maritime commerce and international commerce,” the report mentioned.
Different teams carried out drone assaults in opposition to U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria, the report mentioned, and in addition famous that Iran’s IRGC Quds Pressure and Intelligence and Safety Ministry supported terrorist recruitment and plotting in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.
In recent times, the Israel Protection Forces carried out a sequence of deadly strikes on leaders of main Iranian proxy teams, together with Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, key Houthi official Mohammed al-Ghamari and high Hamas leaders Yahyah Sinwar, Mohammed Sinwar and Mohammed Deif.
The IDF known as the strike that killed Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Khamenei “the end result of a sustained effort to remove the senior management of the Iranian terror axis.”
Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh was additionally killed in Tehran in a 2024 operation {that a} U.S. official attributed to Israel, although the Israeli army has not taken accountability.
Deaths of Iranian protesters and regime change
Regime change shouldn’t be among the many causes for the army operation listed by Mr. Trump on Monday, however the U.S.-Israeli offensive has focused dozens of Iran’s high leaders, together with Khamenei, who was killed on the primary day. Whereas the U.S. has mentioned that Israeli forces carried out that strike, they did so after receiving intelligence about his location from the CIA.
Mr. Trump mentioned Monday that 49 high Iranian leaders had been killed.
In his Saturday video, he urged Iranians to complete what the U.S. and Israel began and overthrow the federal government.
“Now could be the time to grab management of your future,” he informed the Iranian folks. “That is the second for motion. Don’t let it go.”
Amid the Iranian authorities’s bloody crackdown on protesters in January, through which 1000’s had been killed, Mr. Trump warned of “very sturdy motion” in opposition to the regime and informed Iranians that U.S. “assistance is on its method.”
Over the weekend, he informed the Washington Publish the aim is “freedom for the folks” of Iran.
“All I need is freedom for the folks,” he mentioned.
