US President Donald Trump boasted that the US was "knocking out the enemy" with Israeli cooperation during a speech at the Republican Members' Issues Conference in Florida on Monday.
Trump said that together with Netanyahu, “we are crushing the enemy, in an overwhelming display of technical skill and military force.”
According to Trump, 80% of Iranian missile launchers have already been destroyed. “Iran was supposed to be this big, powerful country. We wrapped the hell out of them,” Trump said. He added that 46 ships from the Iranian navy were destroyed, and claimed that it took around three days.
During the address, he added to previous claims that US Operation Epic Fury will not take much more time to complete.
“We are going to have a much safer world as soon as it ends, and it's going to finish pretty quickly,” said Trump, raising hopes amid a war entering its second week.
The US president assured that the Iranian missile stock has been largely destroyed along with drones and weapon factories.
“The missiles have been largely knocked out, the drones have been knocked out, and now we are hitting where they make the drones. We know them all, and we are knocking the hell out of where they manufacture the drones,” he said.
Tehran has been a world threat for at least 47 years, Trump stated, saying that the current operation to defeat the Islamic Republic should have been done years ago.
“Almost every act, whether it's Hamas or Hezbollah, no matter what, you take a look and it's Iran, or Iran sponsored,” Trump said.
Trump visits families of slain US soldiers
After Operation Epic Fury left seven US soldiers dead, Trump went to the Dover Air Force Base on Saturday to honor the fallen and their families.
In his Monday speech, the US president expressed his “eternal gratitude” to the families of “those great heroes.”
At the end of the visit, Trump said, the people in grief told him to keep up with the operations in Iran.“They all said one thing to me: 'make sure you win, sir, make sure you win'," he said.
Trump added that the world cannot be threatened by “evil” terrorists and “lunatics” anymore, and stated that if the US weren’t attacking Iran now, the situation in the Middle East could be worse.
“Not only Israel, which was going to get wiped out, but they would have had a nuclear weapon two weeks after that,” said Trump.
He also said that Iran was looking to take over the Middle East, and was looking to target American assets in the region.
“Within a week, they would going to attack us, 100%, they were ready," he said. "They had all these missiles, far more than anyone thought, and they were going to attack us. But they were going to attack all the Middle East and Israel, and if they had a nuclear weapon, they would have used it in Israel."