Washington — President Donald Trump has set five goals that the United States wants to achieve before ending its war with Iran. Now, as it is It indicates that the United States may soon “back down.” Three and a half weeks into the operation, some of his main goals remained undefined or unachieved.
Trump recently identified five goals for the massive air campaign. This is higher than the four his staff has identified since the start of the war on February 28 (and higher than the three mentioned by the Pentagon and Secretary of State Marco Rubio). Although the Trump administration has said its goals are clear and unchangeable, the list of priorities has expanded and changed as the war has affected the global economy, tested alliances and raised unanswered questions about the planning, justification and consequences of the conflict.
By most reports, strikes by the United States and Israel have dramatically degraded Iran’s military capabilities and killed dozens of senior commanders. But these tactical successes do not necessarily translate into achieving all of the president’s strategic goals.
Some of its objectives will be difficult to achieve, if the United States withdraws with incomplete objectives and Iranian paramilitary forces Islamic Revolutionary Guard In power, Trump may face political repercussions at home and global repercussions over what was accomplished in his decision to launch a war of choice that turned the Middle East upside down and roiled the global economy.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the operation was “a resounding success – Iran’s navy has been destroyed, its defense industrial base has been dismantled, and their dreams of a nuclear weapon are being shattered by the day.”
Here’s a look at the goals as stated in Trump’s words on Friday and where they stand:
One of the main goals the president has set with Iran is to “destroy its missiles and destroy its missile industry on the ground.”
Management says capacity has deteriorated significantly. But in the fourth week of the war, Iran is still launching missiles and drones, including A A series of missiles in Israel early Tuesday after Trump claimed negotiations with Iran were underway.
In an update last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran’s missile and drone programs were “overwhelmingly being destroyed” and that ballistic missile attacks against US forces were “down 90% since the beginning of the conflict.”
Trump on Monday repeated that 90% statistic, saying: “They can’t release them, they don’t have many of them, most of them have been eliminated.” He added on Tuesday that 82% of Iranian missile launchers had been “killed.”
Before Friday, the president and his administration had sometimes listed that goal as a standalone goal, describing it as one of “destroying their missile industry.” Other times, this fell off the list. The Pentagon has generally included this as the first goal of destroying Iran’s missile capability.
US Central Command said its targets for strikes in Iran include weapons production and missile and drone manufacturing facilities. But Iranian attacks against its Gulf neighbors and Israel continue.
The United States and Israel quickly established air superiority in the skies over Iran, flying largely unchallenged. US Central Command said on Monday that the United States had destroyed or damaged more than 140 Iranian ships.
After a US submarine torpedoed and sank an Iranian warship in early March, two other Iranian ships – the Iris Bushehr and the Iris Laffan – were torpedoed. Docked in Sri Lanka India requested assistance from both countries. There has been no indication from the United States that they were sunk or captured since then.
The IRGC has its own naval forces that also rely on small ships to conduct swarm attacks and drop mines. It is unclear how much of that force remains or whether any mines have been planted. But Iranian missiles continue to disrupt navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump achieved a remarkable turnaround over the past year after declaring that the United States had “wiped out” Iran’s nuclear program In Juneonly for his aides to warn that Iran was only weeks away from building the bomb to justify current operations.
The United States did not announce new strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, but Israel announced a series of strikes on nuclear-related targets, including the killing of a senior Iranian nuclear scientist.
One of the most pressing questions in the war is whether Trump will pursue it Capture or destroy on 970 pounds of enriched uranium Tehran possesses what could be used to make weapons.
Trump said for the first time on Monday that the United States would recover uranium, which is believed to be buried deep beneath a mountainous facility. But he indicated that this would happen if the United States concluded some kind of deal with Iran to restore it. Experts say that without permission from Iran, seizing it would be a dangerous mission that would involve a large deployment of US forces in the country.
In a social media post on Friday, Trump added a fifth goal for the United States: “Protect our allies in the Middle East, at the highest level, including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, and others. The Strait of Hormuz should be guarded and monitored, as necessary, by other countries that use it, but the United States does not!”
The United States already maintains thousands of troops at bases and other facilities in the region, and it is not clear how far Trump is willing to go to protect his allies in the Middle East from threats, and Iran can still attack those countries. It is also not clear how far the United States is willing to go to keep the Strait of Hormuz open. Trump has hesitated about whether the United States needs to play a policing role. On Monday, Iran extended the deadline to reopen its crossing Strait of Hormuz Or face attacks on its power stations.
Trump has talked about regime change since the beginning of the war, encouraging the Iranian people to “take over their government” after Israel, with US help, launched strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader and much of the top leadership.
However, Trump and his administration have never explicitly declared regime change as a goal in Iran, although they have made clear that they want to end the oppressive 47-year rule of the theocracy. “The leaders are all very different from the ones we started with who created all these problems,” Trump said Tuesday.
After a moment, he added: “This is a regime change, isn’t it?”
Now the United States claims to be in talks with elements of the Iranian government itself, as it looks to bring a quick end to the conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz to maritime traffic. It seems that these hopes of the Iranian people will not be fulfilled.
Trump administration officials have provided few updates on that goal, which the president has described as ensuring “terrorist proxies in the region cannot destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces” and “ensuring that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, finance, and direct terrorist armies beyond its borders.”
While the United States has struck Iranian-allied militias in Iraq, and Israel appears to be expanding operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the administration has not provided details on how to permanently halt Tehran’s support for militant groups.
The White House said in a statement that ensuring Iran’s proxy groups cannot further destabilize the region remains a key goal and that “proxies are barely putting up a fight because our U.S. military is so powerful and lethal.”
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Associated Press writer Konstantin Torobin contributed to this report.