US President Donald Trump on Saturday claimed that the United States had “knocked out” 42 of Iran’s Navy ships, their Air Force and all communications amid the ongoing conflict with them.
“We're doing very well in Iran. We've knocked out 42 Navy ships, some of them very large, in three days. That was the end of the Navy. We knocked out their Air Force. We knocked out their communications, and all telecommunications is gone. I don't know how they communicate, but I guess they will figure something out. It's not working out too well,” Trump said at the "Shield of the Americas" gathering of Latin American leaders in Miami, Florida.
“They are bad people, they’re just bad people,” he said of Iran’s leaders.
“They were very close to a nuclear weapon. They would have had one if we didn't do our B2 hit, Midnight Hammer. They would have had it eight months ago...So we did the world a favour,” Trump said.
The US President further said that on a scale of 0 to 10, the progress of his country’s campaign against Iran so far is a 15.
His remarks came hours after he warned in a Truth Social post that more Iranian officials will be targets.
“Iran, which is being beat to HELL, has apologized and surrendered to its Middle East neighbors, and promised that it will not shoot at them anymore,” Trump said, adding that the promise was only made because of the relentless US and Israeli attack.
“They were looking to take over and rule the Middle East. It is the first time that Iran has ever lost, in thousands of years, to surrounding Middle Eastern Countries… Today Iran will be hit very hard! Under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death, because of Iran’s bad behaviour, are areas and groups of people that were not considered for targeting up until this moment in time,” he said.
His statement followed a week of rising tensions in the Middle East, after the confrontation between Iran, Israel and the United States spilled beyond Iran’s borders. Iranian missiles and drones targeted Gulf nations hosting US military bases, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain, triggering strong regional condemnation.
Iran, which fired hundreds of missiles at US and Israeli facilities across the Gulf, has since indicated it will stop targeting neighbouring countries unless they allow their territory to be used for attacks against the Islamic Republic.
"I apologise... to the neighbouring countries that were attacked by Iran," said Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian in a speech broadcast by state TV.
He also reiterated that Tehran holds no hostility toward neighbouring states and does not seek conflict with governments across the region, even as hostilities with Israel and the United States continue.
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