Trump White House Gives Update on Timeline for How Long Iran Operation Is Expected to Last

The Trump White House has expanded the timeline for its military action in Iran, also known as Operation Epic Fury.

During a White House press gaggle Friday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she wouldn’t “get ahead of the president on broadcasting any timelines,” before adding a week to Trump’s past projection.

On Monday, Trump said, “We projected four to five weeks. But we have capability to go far longer than that.”

“What I will tell you is what the president has already laid out,” Leavitt said Friday. “The achievable objectives of Operation Epic Fury we expect to last 4 to 6 weeks and are well on our way to achieving those objectives.”

Leavitt then laid out the objectives and where they stood:

Annihilating Iran’s navy — we have sunk more than 30 vessels and ships. Their navy is now deemed combat ineffective. Taking out the ballistic missile threat that Iran posed to the United States and our troops and bases in the region — we have done a tremendous job, the United States military has done a tremendous job at achieving that objective, thus far. Just six days in, the retaliatory ballistic missile strikes from Iran are now down 90%. Of course, ensuring Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon, as well, and significantly weakening their proxies in the region, which we know are responsible for the deaths of Americans, and we’ve seen Hezbollah and the Houthis hardly putting up a fight over the course of the last six days.

“Ultimately, the president made it very clear: He wants to take out the threat of Iran to the United States and Operation Epic Fury is well on the way to doing that,” Leavitt said before adding that Trump “wants to take an interest in pursuing who the next leader of the Iranian country is going to be, and that has yet to be seen, and the president is discussing it and deliberating it.”

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.

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