Iranian war to end once goals achieved: White House

Washington, March 11 (IANS) The White House said that the United States will end its war with Iran once the military objectives of Operation Epic Fury are fully achieved, with President Donald Trump retaining the final authority to decide when the campaign concludes.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the operation was moving faster than initially expected but stressed that the timeline for ending the war would ultimately depend on the President’s assessment that the mission’s goals had been accomplished.

“Ultimately, the operations will end when the commander-in-chief determines the military objectives have been met, fully realised, and that Iran is in a position of complete and unconditional surrender, whether they say it or not,” Leavitt told reporters during her White House briefing.

She said the Pentagon initially estimated the operation could take 4 to 6 weeks.

“The President and the US military's initial timeline was about 4 to 6 weeks to achieve the full objectives of Operation Epic Fury,” she said.

Those objectives include dismantling Iran’s missile capability, crippling its navy, and preventing the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

“Again, to destroy their missiles and their ability to make them destroy their navy, permanently deny them nuclear weapons forever, and to, of course, weaken their evil terrorist proxies in the region,” Leavitt said.

The White House said the campaign had already delivered major blows to Iran’s military capacity.

“More than 5,000 enemy targets have been struck so far,” she said.

Leavitt added that Iranian retaliatory attacks had sharply declined since the start of the campaign.

“Iran's ballistic missile attacks are down more than 90 per cent, and their drone attacks are down by approximately 35 percent since the start of Operation Epic Fury,” she said.

US forces have also targeted Iran’s naval capabilities.

“We have destroyed more than 50 Iranian naval vessels, including a major drone carrier ship,” Leavitt said.

According to the White House, the Iranian navy is now largely unable to operate in key regional waters.

“None of the regime's vessels are operating in major regional waterways and the Iranian navy has been assessed as combat ineffective,” she said.

Leavitt said the military campaign was continuing to expand its focus to Iran’s weapons production infrastructure.

“The US military is moving to dismantle Iran's missile production infrastructure,” she said.

She also confirmed that US strategic bombers had been used to target deeply buried missile facilities.

“Our incredible B-2 bombers recently dropped dozens of 2,000 pound penetrator bombs on deeply buried missile sites,” she said.

The White House reiterated that the ultimate goal of the operation was to remove Iran’s ability to threaten the United States and its allies.

“The stated objectives for Operation Epic Fury remain the same: destroy the terrorist regime's ballistic missiles, raise their Iranian missile industry to the ground, ensure their terrorist proxies can no longer destabilise the region, and ensure that Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon,” Leavitt said.

She said President Trump would determine when those conditions had been met.

“When those objectives are met, then it will ultimately be up to the President to end this operation,” she said.

The United States launched Operation Epic Fury after Washington concluded that Iran was moving toward acquiring a nuclear weapon and expanding its missile capabilities, according to the White House.