A transcript of President Donald Trump’s speech on U.S. airstrikes on Iran on Saturday as transcribed by The Related Press:
Thanks very a lot.
A short while in the past, the U.S. army carried out huge, precision strikes on the three key nuclear services within the Iranian regime. Fordo, Natanz and Esfahan. All people heard these names for years as they constructed this horribly harmful enterprise.
Our goal was the destruction of Iran’s nuclear enrichment capability and a cease to the nuclear menace posed by the world’s primary state sponsor of terror.
Tonight, I can report back to the world that the strikes have been a spectacular army success. Iran’s key nuclear enrichment services have been utterly and completely obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Center East, should now make peace. If they don’t. Future assaults could be far higher and loads simpler.
For 40 years, Iran has been saying. Dying to America, dying to Israel. They’ve been killing our folks, blowing off their arms, blowing off their legs, with roadside bombs. That was their specialty. We misplaced over 1,000 folks and a whole lot of 1000’s all through the Center East, and all over the world have died as a direct results of their hate particularly. So many have been killed by their common, Qassim Soleimani. I made a decision a very long time in the past that I might not let this occur. It is not going to proceed.
I wish to thank and congratulate Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. We labored as a crew like maybe no crew has ever labored earlier than, and we’ve gone a protracted solution to erasing this horrible menace to Israel. I wish to thank the Israeli army for the fantastic job they’ve achieved. And most significantly, I wish to congratulate the nice American patriots who flew these magnificent machines tonight, and the entire United States army on an operation the likes of which the world has not seen in lots of, many a long time.
Hopefully, we’ll not want their providers on this capability. I hope that’s so. I additionally wish to congratulate the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Workers, Basic Dan ‘Razin’ Caine, spectacular common, and the entire sensible army minds concerned on this assault.
With all of that being stated, this can’t proceed. There can be both peace, or there can be tragedy for Iran, far higher than we’ve got witnessed over the past eight days. Keep in mind, there are various targets left. Tonight’s was essentially the most tough of all of them, by far, and maybe essentially the most deadly. But when peace doesn’t come rapidly, we’ll go after these different targets with precision, pace and talent. Most of them will be taken out in a matter of minutes. There’s no army on this planet that might have achieved what we did tonight. Not even shut. There has by no means been a army that might do what befell just a bit whereas in the past.
Tomorrow, Basic Caine, Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth can have a press convention at 8 a.m. on the Pentagon. And I wish to simply thank all people. And, particularly, God. I wish to simply say, we love you, God, and we love our nice army. Defend them. God bless the Center East. God bless Israel and God bless America. Thanks very a lot. Thanks.