US Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday night spoke to the media following a ceasefire between the US and Iran.
"This is a victory for the United States of America that the President and our incredible military made happen," she began. "From the very beginning of Operation Epic Fury, President Trump stated this would be a four- to six-week military operation to dismantle the military threat posed by the radical Islamic Iranian regime. Thanks to the unbelievable capabilities of America's warfighters, the United States has achieved and exceeded those core military objectives in just 38 days."
Leavitt emphasized that, "The US military destroyed Iran's defense industrial base, crushing the regime's ability to manufacture weapons that they and their proxies use to maim and kill Americans and terrorize the world. Iran's ability to build and stockpile ballistic missiles and long-range drones has also been set back by years, compared to where it was six weeks ago, prior to the launch of Operation Epic Fury. We destroyed the vast majority of Iran's ballistic missiles, launcher vehicles, and long-range attack drones through more than 450 strikes on ballistic missiles and approximately 800 strikes on Iran's drone-launching units and storage facilities."
Praising the US military's achievements, she noted that "more than 13,000 targets across Iran were struck" over the course "of just 38 days."
"Meanwhile, the Iranian Navy was completely annihilated. The United States destroyed more than 150 naval vessels in total, including 16 entire classes of Iranian warships. Despite once being the largest undersea force in the Middle East, Iran now has zero submarine vessels. Ninety-seven percent of Iran's once-massive inventory of more than 5,000 naval mines has also been targeted and destroyed.
"Iran's air forces are functionally and operationally irrelevant at this point, after the United States maintained total air dominance over their country for weeks on end. To underscore the significance of this, before Operation Epic Fury, the Iranian Air Force would fly between 30 to 100 flights per day. Today, that number is zero."
Importantly, Leavitt said that the US believes that at this point "Iran's ability to fund and support its terrorist proxies has been greatly reduced. .... Iran can no longer distribute weapons to its proxies in the region. And most importantly, Iran will not be able to acquire nuclear weapons."
Leavitt also emphasized the need for Operation Epic Fury to happen when it did: "Prior to the start of this successful operation, Iran was aggressively expanding its short-range ballistic missile arsenal. Through these weapons and its Navy, Iran was attempting to build a military buildup around their country that would pose an imminent and existential threat to the United States' military assets in the Middle East, our allies in the region, and ultimately, the free world."
"Iran was pursuing this dangerous and aggressive strategy for one reason, to hold the entire world hostage to its terrorist ambitions," she added. "The Iranians aimed to use their expanded military capabilities as a shield around their country to continue achieving their ultimate goal internally, building nuclear bombs."
Now, Iran's command and control structures have been "massively disrupted after being struck more than 2,000 times," and "many of their remaining leaders are paralyzed in fear and no longer enjoy the freedom to move around their country freely and meet openly."
"As we mark this progress, we also remember and honor the 13 American heroes who laid down their lives in this noble effort. I know President Trump and our grateful nation honors their ultimate sacrifice, and we will never forget them. May God bless their families," she said, praising "the valiant efforts of all of our incredible service members" for creating "maximum leverage for the President of the United States" to engage in "tough negotiations" which ultimately led to Iran "asking for, and ultimately agreeing to, a ceasefire proposal with the United States."
"Iran could no longer tolerate being bombed or taking the gamble of what was to come following President Trump's 8 p.m. deadline last night."
In an effort to combat fake news, Leavitt explained that the Iranians "originally put forward a 10-point plan that was fundamentally unserious, unacceptable, and completely discarded. It was literally thrown in the garbage by President Trump and his negotiating team." However, "with the President's deadline fast approaching and the United States military completely decimating Iran with each passing hour," Iran offered "a more reasonable and entirely different and condensed plan" which the US determined to be "a workable basis on which to negotiate and to align it with our own 15-point proposal."
"The President's red lines, namely the end of Iranian enrichment in Iran, have not changed," she added.
She warned the media, "What Iran says publicly or feeds to all of you in the press is much different than what they communicate to the United States, the President, and his team privately."
"Their Navy, their missiles, their defense industrial base, and their desire and their plan to build a nuclear bomb inside their country is no longer going to be allowed, can no longer happen thanks to the remarkable success of Operation Epic Fury over the course of the last 38 days. That has been absolutely achieved, and now we're moving into the next phase of this, which is a negotiating period, to put some fine points on this and to hopefully broker an agreement that can achieve long-term peace in the Middle East."
Answering questions from the press, Leavitt said that the US is "moving to next round of negotiations, hopefully with the new regime," but quickly contradicted herself, saying that negotiations will be held with the "remnants of the Iranian regime."
"We took out the military of a rogue Islamic regime," she said.
The ceasefire, she stressed, is conditions on "free and safe movement" through the Strait of Hormuz, conditions which include no tolls. Since the ceasefire took effect, the Strait has seen an uptick in traffic, but the US will continue monitoring movement through the Strait.
"This is a fragile truce, ceasefires by nature are fragile. We completely dismantled Iran's command and control centers," so it takes time for decisions to filter through.
Regarding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, she said that he and US President Donald Trump spoke prior to the ceasefire taking effect, and that Netanyahu "supports the ceasefire with Iran, Israel has been 'tremendous partner.'" She also emphasized that what Netanyahu told Trump during that conversation was the same as what he said to the world on Wednesday evening.
At the same time, Leavitt stressed that "Lebanon is not included in the ceasefire, and this has been relayed to all parties."
What led to the ceasefire was Trump's threat on eliminating civilization, she added. "The world should take Trump's word very seriously."
"The Pentagon had target list to go on if Iran had not capitulated last night."
"Trump is considering withdrawing from NATO," she added, noting that there will be updates soon. "NATO was tested and failed, they turned their backs on the American people."
Asked if the "new regime" has led to an improvement for the Iranian people, Leavitt responded that it is "too early to know," but that the US has "yet to see change for Iranian people."