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A large number of Iran's ballistic missiles and launchers remain undamaged after a month of airstrikes by the United States and Israel.
Credit: Arash
Khamooshi for The New York Times have done significant damage to Iran's military capabilities. But Iran still fires missiles, has nuclear material and coordinates with militias in the region.
Here is an assessment of where the war stands now
based on the goals he described in that video.
The scene of an Iranian missile strike in Bnei Brak, Israel, last week. Credit: Avishag Shaar-Yashuv for The New York Times
"We're going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally again obliterated."
The U.S. and Israeli militaries have destroyed many of Iran's ballistic missiles and launchers in airstrikes.
But a large number are undamaged, and Iran continues to fire missiles in the region. In addition, it is using attack drones. The United States and Israel have decimated many Iranian factories that produce missiles.
"We're going to annihilate their navy."
A notable attack took place near Sri Lanka in early March, when a U.S. submarine fired torpedoes to sink an Iranian destroyer, the IRIS Dena, which had a crew of 180 people.
Initial reports said at least 80 people were killed.
The ship had taken part in naval exercises in
India and was on its way home. The United States had participated in
the same exercises.
Houthi fighters in Sanaa, Yemen, in 2024. The regional militias supported by Iran are still active. Credit: Khaled Abdullah/Reuters
"We're going to ensure that the region's terrorist proxies can no longer destabilize the region or the world and attack our forces, and no longer use their I.E.D.s, or roadside bombs as they are sometimes called, to so gravely wound and kill thousands and thousands of people, including many Americans."
The militias are still active. Some in Iraq have fired rockets at U.S. diplomatic buildings there during the war, for instance. The most powerful militia, Hezbollah, based in Lebanon, has been attacked by Israel in recent years but has not been destroyed.
Israel has invaded Lebanon and signaled this year
that it could occupy part of the south.
But militias have not been laying roadside bombs
to attack Americans in recent years.
"And we will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon. It's a very simple message.
They will never have a nuclear
weapon."
But the Trump administration has pointed to
Iran's
highly enriched uranium, which the
government created and stockpiled after Mr. Trump withdrew from an
Obama-era nuclear deal in 2018, as
evidence that Iran wants the option to make a weapon.
Sending ground troops into Iran to seize the
material would be risky.
Attacks in Tehran continued on Wednesday. Though several Iranian leaders and officials have been killed in the war, there has been no popular revolt to replace the government. Credit: Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times
"Finally, to the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand. Stay sheltered. Don't leave your home. It's very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere. When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations."
Mr. Trump said he had carried out "regime
change," and pointed to airstrikes that have killed
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, and other senior
officials.
The current government remains theocratic,
authoritarian and anti-American, and continues to wage a war of
resistance.
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