President Donald Trump said Monday that U.S. air attacks on Iran over the weekend were designed to cripple Tehran’s military operations — especially its “ballistic missile capability” — and prevent Iran’s leaders from continuing to fund and direct militant groups outside the country or pursuing a nuclear weapon.
“The United States military continues to carry out an historic combat operation in Iran to eliminate the grave threat posed to America by this terrible terrorist regime,” Trump said in his first live, on-camera address since the joint U.S.-Israeli air strikes in Iran on Saturday, according to a video posted by the White House. “We will easily prevail.”
Trump’s reasoning for the U.S. air strikes in Iran mirrored a statement made earlier Monday by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth during a Pentagon press briefing, in which he stated that the U.S. air strikes in Iran had specific goals, which included targeting Iran’s offensive missiles, missile production, its navy, and preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, as explained by the Department of Defense.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated Monday that Trump’s goals for the U.S. air strikes in Iran included the destruction of Iran’s missile production capabilities, weakening its proxy forces, and ensuring that Iran would be unable to develop a nuclear weapon, as explained in a statement posted on X.
The U.S. and Israeli air strikes in Iran on February 28 have prompted a series of retaliatory missile and drone attacks by Iran targeting Israel and parts of the Gulf region, with several countries reporting damages, as explained in regional updates by the U.S. Department of State.
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