PRESIDENT Donald Trump has warned Iran that US forces could “bring them back to the Stone Ages” within weeks if no deal is reached, declaring the country’s military “decimated” after a month of sustained strikes. In a televised address, Trump said it had been “just one month since the United States military began Operation Epic Fury targeting the world’s number one state sponsor of terror, Iran,” claiming rapid battlefield gains. “Tonight, Iran’s Navy is gone. Their Air Force is in ruins. Their leaders… are now dead,” he said, adding that Iran’s missile and drone capabilities had been “dramatically curtailed” and weapons facilities “blown to pieces.” He framed the campaign as necessary to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. “I have vowed that I would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said, calling the regime “the most violent and thuggish regime on Earth.” Meanwhile, Iran fired more missiles at Israel and Gulf Arab states on Thursday, demonstrating Tehran’s continued ability to strike its neighbours even as Trump claimed the threat from the country was nearly eliminated. Iran’s attacks on Gulf states along with its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz have disrupted the world’s energy supplies with effects far beyond the Middle East. That has proved to be Iran’s greatest strategic advantage in the war. Britain planned to hold a call with nearly three dozen countries about how to reopen the strait once the fighting is over. Trump has insisted the strait can be taken by force - but said it is not up to the US to do that. Trump encouraged countries that depend on oil from Hormuz to ‘build some delayed courage’ and go ‘take it’.

 

A spokesman for Iran’s military, Lt. Col. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, insisted Thursday that Tehran maintains hidden stockpiles of arms, munitions and production facilities. He said facilities targeted so far by US strikes are “insignificant”. Just before Trump began his address - in which he said US “core strategic objectives are nearing completion” - explosions were heard in Dubai as air defences worked to intercept an Iranian missile barrage. Less than a half-hour after the President was done, Israel said its military was also working to intercept incoming missiles. Sirens sounded in Bahrain, home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, immediately after the speech. Attacks continued across Iran on Thursday, with strikes reported in multiple cities. In Lebanon - home to Iran-backed Hezbollah militants who are fighting Israel, which has launched a ground invasion - an Israeli strike killed four people in the south, the Health Ministry said. More than 1,900 people have been killed in Iran during the war, while 19 have been reported dead in Israel. More than two dozen people have died in Gulf states and the occupied West Bank, while 13 US service members have been killed. More than 1,200 people have been killed and more than 1 million displaced in Lebanon. Ten Israeli soldiers have also died there.

 

The 35 countries speaking on Thursday, including all G7 industrialized democracies except the US, as well as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, signed a declaration last month demanding Iran stop blocking the strait. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the countries will discuss “viable diplomatic and political measures” to resume shipping. Thursday’s talks were focused on political and diplomatic measures, but British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said military planners from an unspecified number of countries will also plot ways to ensure security once fighting ends, including potential mine-clearing work and “reassurance” for commercial shipping. On Thursday, Brent crude, the international standard, rose again and was at USD 108 in spot trading, up about 50 per cent from February 28 when Israel and the US started the war.