The United States has launched “major combat operations” against Iran, President Donald Trump said on Saturday, vowing to "annihilate" the country's navy and missile sites, and urging Iranians to overthrow their government.
In a video address after the United States and Israel started bombing Iran, Trump made clear the goal was destruction of the Islamic republic's military and toppling of the authorities in power since the 1979 revolution.
"We are going to destroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground. It will be totally, again, obliterated. We're going to annihilate their navy," Trump said in the address from his Florida home posted to his Truth Social platform.
Speaking to Iranians, Trump said: "When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take."
"This will be probably your only chance for generations," Trump said. "The hour of your freedom is at hand."
Trump urged Iranian forces to surrender, including the elite Revolutionary Guards that is tasked with safeguarding the cleric-run government.
"To the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, the armed forces, and all of the police, I say tonight that you must lay down your weapons and have complete immunity or in the alternative, face certain death."
Trump justified the assault on Iran saying: "Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime."
"They attempted to rebuild their nuclear program and to continue developing long range missiles that can now threaten our very good friends and allies in Europe, our troops stationed overseas and could soon reach the American homeland," he said.
And Trump warned ordinary Iranians that the U.S. bombing would be large-scale.
"Stay sheltered. Don't leave your home. It's very dangerous outside. Bombs will be dropping everywhere."
The attack was widely expected after Trump ordered the biggest military deployment to the Middle East in years.
But Trump on Friday had insisted that he had not decided whether to attack, and his envoys on Thursday held talks with Iran's top diplomat toward a deal on concerns led by Tehran's nuclear program.
The top diplomat of Oman, which mediated talks Thursday in Geneva between the United States and Iran, had been optimistic for a compromise.
He met Friday with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and told CBS News that Iran had agreed to zero stockpiling of enriched uranium that could build an atomic bomb, a goal denied by Tehran.
Trump in June ordered the U.S. military to bomb Iran's main nuclear sites in support of an Israeli military campaign.
