Navy Admiral Brad Cooper, Commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, detailing the overwhelming success of "Operation Epic Fury" against Iran.
The hearing, centered on the fiscal year 2027 defense budget, served as a platform for Cooper to announce that the threat posed by the Islamic Republic has been fundamentally dismantled.
Admiral Cooper informed lawmakers that the 38-day campaign achieved all primary military objectives, stripping Tehran of its ability to terrorize its neighbors and project power across the Middle East.
"In less than 40 days, CENTCOM forces achieved our military objectives," Cooper testified. "Most notably, we degraded Iran's ability to project power outside its borders and threaten the region and threaten our interests."
Recalling the brazen Iranian missile barrages launched against the State of Israel in April and October of last year, Cooper emphasized that such an attack is now a physical impossibility. US forces systematically eliminated Iran's conventional missile inventory and decimated the infrastructure required to replace it.
"Today, Iran can no longer attack with that mass and scale," the Admiral stated. "And further, with 90% of its defense industrial base destroyed, Iran won't be able to reconstitute those weapons for years."
Cooper stated that the Iranian navy has been so thoroughly degraded that it will likely take five to ten years before it can even begin the process of rebuilding.
Admiral Cooper confirmed that the terror proxies - Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis - are now entirely isolated from their Iranian patrons.
"This result was not foreordained, nor was it brought by chance," Cooper noted. "It's the culmination of months of careful planning built upon decades of experience."
A significant outcome of Operation Epic Fury has been the solidification of military alliances in the region. Cooper praised the "exceptional" cooperation from partner nations, stating that the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia are currently standing "literally side by side with the United States in defense."
The Admiral also gave special credit to the Kingdom of Jordan and the State of Israel, noting that the successes of the campaign would have been "impossible" without their close operational partnership.
Meanwhile on Thursday, Trump hinted that the war against Iran is not yet over and the military decimation of the Islamic Republic could continue.
The comment was made as part of a longer post on Truth Social following Trump’s visit to China and his meeting with President Xi Jinping.
“When President Xi very elegantly referred to the United States as perhaps being a declining nation, he was referring to the tremendous damage we suffered during the four years of Sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden Administration, and on that score, he was 100% correct. Our Country suffered immeasurably with open borders, high taxes, transgender for everybody, men in women’s sports, DEI, horrible trade deals, rampant crime, and so much more!" wrote Trump.
“President Xi was not referring to the incredible rise that the United States has displayed to the world during the 16 spectacular months of the Trump Administration, which includes all-time high stock markets and 401K’s, military victory and thriving relationship in Venezuela, the military decimation of Iran (to be continued!)," he added.
Trump, who has repeatedly said that he would not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, repeated this stance on Tuesday before taking off for China.
Speaking to reporters, Trump warned the Islamic Republic it must accept the US terms for a deal to end the war and address its nuclear program.
“They’ll either do the right thing, or we’ll finish the job," Trump said, rejecting the idea that rising prices in the US pushed him to seek an end to the war.
“I don’t think about Americans’ financial situations. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all," the President clarified.
“The most important thing by far is Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Every American understands it. If the stock market goes up or down a little bit, the American people understand it."
Trump stressed that the US will “win it one way or the other. We’ll win it peacefully or otherwise. No matter how you cut it, we win."