{"id":40571,"date":"2026-04-04T04:07:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T04:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=40571"},"modified":"2026-04-04T04:07:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T04:07:19","slug":"how-have-trumps-iran-war-aims-changed-and-has-he-achieved-any-of-them-us-israel-war-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=40571","title":{"rendered":"How have Trump\u2019s Iran war aims changed and has he achieved any of them? | US-Israel war on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"


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In his address to the nation on Wednesday evening Donald Trump said the US would \u201cvery shortly\u201d achieve its strategic objectives in Iran<\/a> \u2013 partly because the White House has constantly adjusted its goals since the start of the war on 28 February.<\/p>\n

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Eliminate Iran\u2019s missile and drone threat<\/h2>\n

In an eight-minute video released on 28 February, Trump promised that the US would \u201cdestroy their missiles and raze their missile industry to the ground\u201d. Before the war Iran was estimated to have about 2,500 high-speed ballistic missiles and destroying the programme was a key goal for Israel too.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s missile launch rates have been reduced by about 90% and its long-term manufacturing capacity has been significantly degraded. However, Tehran has retained a continued, if modest, capacity to strike Israel and the Gulf, causing fear, damage and small numbers of casualties.<\/p>\n

There have been seven to 19 waves of attacks a day on Israel by Iran since the fourth day of the war, according to the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies<\/a>. The most heavily targeted Gulf state, the United Arab Emirates, said on Thursday its air defences had engaged 26 drones and 19 missiles from Iran.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Smoke rising from the port of Jebel Ali after a reported Iranian strike in Dubai in March.<\/span> Photograph: Fadel Senna\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, sources told Reuters last week<\/a> that the US could only determine with certainty that it had destroyed about a third of Iran\u2019s missile arsenal. On Wednesday Trump said the US was \u201churting their \u2026 missile programme at levels never seen before\u201d and that Iran\u2019s missiles and drone launches had been \u201cdramatically curtailed\u201d \u2013 a notable softening of his opening position.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon<\/h2>\n

At the beginning of the war, Trump said \u201cwe will ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon\u201d. At the time Iran held a stock of 440kg of 60% enriched uranium, enough to make 10 bombs if it could be upgraded to the necessary 90%.<\/p>\n

However, western intelligence agencies and independent experts did not believe Iran had the capability to build a single bomb, particularly after last June\u2019s bombing of the country\u2019s nuclear sites by Israel and the US during the 12-day war.<\/p>\n

A range of Iranian nuclear sites have been further targeted over the past five weeks, making bomb building inconceivable, but the nuclear material remains, probably at a site in Isfahan. On Wednesday Trump declared he \u201cdidn\u2019t care\u201d about this<\/a> because it was \u201cso far underground\u201d at a location monitored by satellite.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Smoke and fire rise after an explosion in Isfahan, Iran, in this screengrab from social media video posted on 31 March. <\/span> Photograph: Social media\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Destroy Iran\u2019s navy and air force, and end threats to shipping<\/h2>\n

Trump promised to \u201cannihilate their navy\u201d at the start of the war and last week Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, added destroying Iran\u2019s air force to the list of US objectives. They are goals that have been broadly achieved. Trump said on Wednesday that Iran\u2019s navy and air force had both been eliminated.<\/p>\n

At the end of March, the White House claimed that 150 Iranian vessels had been destroyed. US claims about Iran\u2019s air force are less clear, but it has not been militarily effective and the US and Israel have enjoyed air superiority since day one.<\/p>\n

However, this may not be as significant as claimed because asymmetric threats are very hard to reduce to zero. Iran has been able to close the strait of Hormuz<\/a> through periodic drone attacks and it is thought to retain the ability to mine the waterway.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Satellite view of the strait of Hormuz, which has become a critical global energy supply chokepoint.<\/span> Photograph: Gallo Images\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Wednesday Trump said it was up to other countries to \u201ctake the lead\u201d<\/a> in reopening the strait, as he tried to walk away from a problem he had created. In response, the price of Brent crude oil rose by 8%.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Demilitarise pro-Iran proxies<\/h2>\n

The initial Trump promise was \u201cto ensure that the region\u2019s terrorist proxies can no longer destabilise the region or the world and attack our forces\u201d \u2013 a wide commitment encompassing Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and groups in Iraq.<\/p>\n

Conflicts involving all are ongoing. Israel has begun an invasion of southern Lebanon<\/a> aimed at clearing out Hezbollah and Shia Muslims below the Litani River, though rocket fire into Israel from the north continues. The Houthis have<\/a> conducted three missile attacks into Israel and have threatened to close the Red Sea.<\/p>\n

Drone attacks on western bases in Erbil, northern Iraq, have continued nightly. On Thursday the US embassy in Iraq warned there could be attacks by local militias in Baghdad and urged Americans to leave the country for their own safety.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Smoke billows from an oil warehouse on the outskirts of Erbil after a suspected drone strike, on Wednesday.<\/span> Photograph: AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Trump, meanwhile, appears to have modified his objective. His aim, he said on Wednesday, was simply to prevent Iran from helping its regional allies \u2013 in his words, to \u201ccrush their ability to support terrorist proxies\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Regime change<\/h2>\n

This was at first a Trump goal, with the president telling \u201cthe great proud people of Iran\u201d on 28 February that \u201cthe hour of your freedom is at hand\u201d \u2013 though he advised would-be protesters to wait for the US-Israeli bombing to stop, which it has not.<\/p>\n

There has been no sign of any popular uprising following the killing of Iran\u2019s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei<\/a>, on the first day of the war, not least because previous protests were brutally suppressed in January<\/a>. The subsequent installation of Khamenei\u2019s son Mojtaba<\/a> demonstrated that the existing Iranian regime had endured, despite lingering questions over his wellbeing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>A poster bearing an image of the new Iranian supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei (left), in Tehran.<\/span> Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh\/EPA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Trump and his allies had already backed away from the goal, though on Wednesday the president repeated an argument that \u201cregime change has occurred\u201d because of Ali Khamenei\u2019s death \u2013 though it has made little difference for now.<\/p>\n

A more nuanced question is whether the younger Khamenei and his backers in the Revolutionary Guards can endure in the medium to long term. If the US-Israeli bombing were to stop tomorrow, Iran would be isolated and weakened, similar, arguably, to the Assad regime<\/a> after surviving the early phase of the Syrian civil war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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