Iran is facing the prospect of ‘complete destruction and certain death’ as the US-Israeli offensive escalates in the wake of a week of severe damage across the country, Donald Trump has warned.
In a combative post on TruthSocial, the president applauded the ‘relentless US and Israeli attack’ that has been underway since February 28, claiming it had left Iran the ‘LOSER OF THE MIDDLE EAST’ following an apology delivered earlier today by President Masoud Pezeshkian.
Pezeshkian’s impromptu address pushed back against Trump’s call for ‘unconditional surrender’, while also offering regret to Gulf states after hundreds of drone and missile strikes were launched in the aftermath of Israel’s airstrike last Saturday that he said had crippled Iran’s leadership.
He attributed the attacks on military sites and regional oil infrastructure to units allegedly operating under a ‘fire at will’ posture amid the breakdown of a unified command structure. Trump, vowing intensified action, asserted Iran had already ‘surrendered’.
Trump’s statement also emphasized Washington’s contribution to what he described as the first time “Iran has ever lost, in thousands of years,” in a conflict with neighboring states. He added a further warning: “Today Iran will be hit very hard!”
With Ayatollah Khamenei reported dead and internal factions within Iran’s military and IRGC security forces competing for control of the state and the legacy of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Trump said the campaign would continue rather than pause.
He went on to say that certain ‘groups of people’ — not previously singled out by US and Israeli aircraft, drones, and missiles — were now ‘under serious consideration for complete destruction and certain death.’
Although he did not identify who he meant, the president said the next phase would focus on those he blamed for Iran’s ‘bad behaviour.’
The provocative post appeared only hours before Trump attended the Shield of the Americas summit in Miami, where he told the audience that the US effort against Iran was going ‘very well’.
Calling developments in the war — which he said had resulted in more than 2000 deaths across the Middle East over the past week — ‘amazing’, Trump also claimed the US had destroyed 42 Iranian naval vessels in the last three days.
After the summit, he is expected to meet relatives of service members killed since the conflict began. Before departing, he told attendees that troops were ‘coming home from Iran in a different manner than they thought they’d be coming home’.
As the White House signaled the operation — described officially as a ‘major combat operation’ — may extend further, Trump said he would aim to keep casualties to ‘a minimum’.
