U.S. and Israel launch Iran attack: What has Trump said about “major combat operations”?

The United States and Israel have launched an attack on Iran, with president Donald Trump confirming in a video address that the U.S. has kicked off “major combat operations” aimed at “eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime”.

In a speech posted on social media early on Saturday, Trump declared his administration’s intention to “prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests”. Trump said the “massive and ongoing” military operation would seek to “raze” Iran’s missile industry “to the ground”, ending the country’s “malicious pursuit of nuclear weapons”. “They can never have a nuclear weapon,” the 79-year-old said.

Meanwhile, the Israeli defense minister, Israel Katz, confirmed the country had launched a “pre-emptive” strike on Iran to “remove threats to the State of Israel”, according to Reuters. Per the news agency, an Israeli defense official said the operation had been planned in collaboration with the U.S. for months.

What Donald Trump said about the Iran attack in his video address:

“A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran. Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people. Its menacing activities directly endanger the United States, our troops, our bases overseas, and our allies throughout the world.

“For 47 years, the Iranian regime has chanted ‘death too America’ and waged an unending campaign of bloodshed and mass murder, targeting the United States, our troops, the innocent people in many, many countries. Among the regime’s very first acts was to back a violent takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, holding dozens of American hostages for 444 days. In 1983, Iran’s proxies carried out the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut that killed 241 American military personnel. In 2000, they knew [about], and were probably involved with, the attack on the U.S.S. Cole. Many died. Iranian forces killed and maimed hundreds of American service members in Iraq, the regime’s proxies have continued to launch countless attacks against American forces stationed in the Middle East in recent years, as well as U.S. naval and commercial vessels in international shipping lanes.

“It’s been mass terror, and we’re not going to put up with it any longer. From Lebanon to Yemen, and Syria to Iraq, the regime has armed, trained and funded terrorist militias that have soaked the earth with blood and guts. And it was Iran’s proxy, Hamas, that launched the monstrous October 7 attacks on Israel, slaughtering more than 1,000 people include 46 Americans, while taking 12 of our citizens hostage. It was brutal. Something like the world has never seen before. Iran is the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of terror and just recently killed tens of thousands of its own citizens on the street as they protested.

“It has always been the policy of the Untied States, in particular my administration, that this terrorist regime can never have a nuclear weapon. I’ll say it again: they can never have a nuclear weapon. That is why, in Operation Midnight Hammer last June, we obliterated the regime’s nuclear program at Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan. After that attack, we wanted them never to resume their malicious pursuit of nuclear weapons, and we sought repeatedly to make a deal. We tried, they wanted to do it, they didn’t want to do it; again they wanted to do it, they didn’t want to do it. They didn’t know what was happening. They just wanted to practice evil. But Iran refused, just as it has for decades and decades. They rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions. And we can’t take it anymore.

“Instead, they attempted to rebuild their nuclear program and to continue developing long-range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas and could soon reach the American homeland. Just imagine how emboldened this regime would be if they ever had, and actually were armed with, nuclear weapons as a means to deliver their message.

“For these reasons, the United States military is undertaking a massive and ongoing operation, to prevent this very wicked, radical dictatorship from threatening America and our core national security interests. We’re going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated.”

• Trump’s video address in full

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