Trump Says Iran Is ‘Totally Defeated and Wants a Deal’

President Donald Trump on March 13 said the Iranian regime was “totally defeated and wants a deal.”

“The Fake News Media hates to report how well the United States Military has done against Iran, which is totally defeated and wants a deal—But not a deal that I would accept!” Trump wrote in a late-night Truth Social post.

Trump’s comments came hours after he said the United States “totally obliterated” all military targets on Iran’s Kharg Island on Friday.

“The United States Central Command executed one of the most powerful bombing raids in the History of the Middle East, and totally obliterated every MILITARY target in Iran’s crown jewel, Kharg Island,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Friday.

U.S. forces did not strike the oil infrastructure on the island—Tehran’s most vital economic asset—but Trump said he would reconsider that decision if the Iranian regime or any other country interferes with the safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

Friday’s strike hit over 90 Iranian military targets on Kharg Island, according to the U.S. Central Command.

Kharg Island, which sits 16 miles from Iran’s Persian Gulf coast, is where 90 percent of the oil it exports is pumped from terminals into supertankers.

The strike included naval mine storage facilities, missile storage bunkers, and multiple other military sites, according to the U.S. Central Command.

Epoch Times contributor Stu Cvrk, a retired U.S. Navy Captain, suggested the island was “deliberately spared” to limit escalation.

“A U.S. strategic objective is to create the conditions for a ‘counterrevolution’ in Iran—one that would oust the current leadership clique, as well as their supporting security and intelligence infrastructure,” Cvrk previously told The Epoch Times.

“That means not providing any reasons the regime could use to convince the Iranian people to rally around it. Taking out Kharg would do exactly that because that would set their ability to export oil back for months, for years.”

The Iran War started Feb. 28 when the United States and Israel attacked the country’s military sites and killed dozens of senior leaders, including assassinating Iranian leader Ali Khamenei.

Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, was chosen to replace his father.

But the new leader, who has close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and influence with local clerics, has not appeared in public since his selection.

A senior Israeli security official told Epoch Magazine in Israel on March 11 that Israel received indications that Khamenei suffered a leg injury during strikes targeting his father’s bunker, but the full extent of his wounds is unclear.

Trump said on March 12 that Khamenei may still be “alive in some form.”