President Donald Trump said late Thursday that a U.S. ground invasion of Iran would be "a waste of time," saying the Islamic Republic has already been crippled by American military action.
Trump made the comment in a phone interview with NBC News after Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran was ready to confront American and Israeli forces.
"It's a waste of time," the president said. "They've lost everything.
"They've lost their navy. They've lost everything they can lose."
Earlier Thursday, Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, said more than 30 Iranian warships have been sunk or destroyed since the launch of Operation Epic Fury on Feb. 28.
Among the vessels cited were the Shahid Soleimani-class IRIS Shahid Sayyad Shirazi and the frigate IRIS Dena off Sri Lanka. The strike on the Dena reportedly killed at least 87 sailors.
The U.S. also struck the drone carrier IRIS Shahid Bagheri, setting it ablaze, according to footage released by CENTCOM.
Cooper said B-2 bombers also dropped dozens of 2,000-pound bombs on buried ballistic missile launchers and targeted what he described as Tehran's version of Space Command.
"The U.S. military is in the process of dismantling Iran's missile production capability for the future," Cooper said.
"We're not just hitting what they have. We're destroying their ability to rebuild."
Israel's military said Friday it launched "a broad-scale wave of strikes" against Tehran and Beirut.
Ground forces also reportedly clashed with Iran-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon after Iran fired drones and missiles into Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain.
In a separate NBC interview Thursday, Araghchi said he was "confident" Iran could repel any ground invasion.
"We are waiting for them," he said. "Because we are confident that we can confront them, and that would be a big disaster for them."
Also Thursday night, Trump said he had possible candidates in mind to run Iran after its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the first day of the war.
"We want to go in and clean out everything," Trump told NBC. "We don't want someone who would rebuild over a 10-year period."
"We want them to have a good leader. We have some people who I think would do a good job."
Trump said his administration was "watching" preferred candidates, though he did not name them. He also dismissed Khamenei's son Mojtaba as a "lightweight" and an "unacceptable" choice.
Earlier this week, Trump told the New York Post that Operation Epic Fury was "way ahead of schedule," though he did not rule out U.S. ground troops "if they were necessary."
"I don't have the yips with respect to boots on the ground — like every president says, 'There will be no boots on the ground.' I don't say it," Trump explained.
"I say 'probably don't need them' [or] 'if they were necessary.'"
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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