On Sunday, President Donald Trump revealed that American armed forces successfully sank nine vessels belonging to the Iranian Navy and extensively damaged their central naval command.
The joint offensive, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, began on Saturday with a coordinated U.S.-Israeli bombardment of Iran that resulted in the deaths of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei alongside several high-ranking Iranian figures.
Taking to Truth Social, Trump posted: “I have just been informed that we have destroyed and sunk 9 Iranian Naval Ships, some of them relatively large and important. We are going after the rest — They will soon be floating at the bottom of the sea, also! In a different attack, we largely destroyed their Naval Headquarters.”
Before issuing this statement, Trump shared with The Atlantic earlier on Sunday that an agreement has been reached to enter into negotiations with Iran’s incoming leadership, adding that such discussions are well past due.
He clarified that no specific schedule has been established yet, primarily because a large number of the Iranian officials involved in past dialogues were killed in the recent strikes.
Following the first wave of bombings in Tehran, the president stated that American troops stationed in the Middle East would carry out an extensive, continuous campaign aimed at degrading Iran’s capabilities and neutralizing immediate dangers to the United States.
Israel’s role in the joint mission centered heavily on targeting Khamenei. Meanwhile, American efforts zeroed in on the Iranian defense sector, with the destruction of the naval fleet demonstrating Washington’s resolve to eliminate any military threat posed by the nation.
Despite the mutual commitment to upcoming negotiations, the identities of the participating Iranian delegates remain uncertain, given that a successor to the Supreme Leader has yet to be named.
Addressing the power vacuum on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi mentioned that a new leader might be chosen in the coming days, while Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian confirmed that the administrative transition is already in progress.