By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The United States and Israel launched a joint military operation against Iran early Saturday, striking targets across the Middle Eastern nation after Iran failed to meet President Donald Trump’s expectations in nuclear negotiations.
Iran quickly retaliated, firing missiles across the region, where the U.S. has numerous troops in an array of bases.
Trump announced the operation in an eight-minute video posted to his Truth Social account Saturday. He followed what he called “major combat operations” with a call on Iranians to seize the chance to overthrow the Islamist regime.
The operation came after last June’s war between Israel and Iran, which the U.S. joined toward the end by dropping massive bombs aimed at destroying Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. At the time, Trump said that infrastructure had been “obliterated.”
Trump said Saturday the Iranians had “attempted to rebuild their nuclear programme and 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 our American homeland.”
Following Trump’s announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the joint operation “to remove the existential threat posed by the terrorist regime in Iran” in a video of his own posted to social media.
“This murderous terrorist regime must not be allowed to arm itself with nuclear weapons that would enable it to threaten all of humanity,” Netanyahu said.
Both Netanyahu and Trump urged the Iranian people, many of whom oppose the Islamist clerics who have ruled the country for nearly 50 years to seize the moment and oust their leaders.
It was not clear exactly how long Trump intends to pursue the strikes and whether any type of de-escalation, including a return to diplomatic talks, was immediately or at all possible. The operation also comes months before the U.S. midterm elections.
The U.S. launched dozens of Tomahawk missiles from warships at sea in the region as part of the operation, and American fighter planes are also involved, a U.S. official said, having been granted anonymity to discuss the strike.
The campaign will likely be measured in “days not hours,” the official added, suggesting that the Saturday strikes are part of a larger, coordinated campaign.
U.S. ground troops did not initially appear to be deployed inside Iran, but countries throughout the region fear a major regional war could unfold as Iran’s Islamist regime fights back and tries to re-establish some level of deterrence.
Trump said the strikes were part of a “massive and ongoing” effort whose targets included Iranian missile sites and the country’s navy. Reports from the region indicated a number of top Iranian political officials also were targeted.
“We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground,” Trump said. “We are going to annihilate their navy, we are going to ensure that the region’s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region and the world.”
