The Trump Administration Says They Are No Longer Concerned About Iranian Ballistic Missiles

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As questions continue to swirl around the Iran deal, the Trump administration has begun responding to one of the fastest growing criticisms: Iran's ballistic missile capabilities, which were a central target at the outset of Operation Epic Fury. 

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Administration officials now argue that Iran's missile capacity has been degraded to the point that it no longer poses the same level of concern it once did. President Trump also addressed the issue at the G7 summit yesterday, arguing that it would be unreasonable to expect Iran to completely eliminate its ballistic missile arsenal while neighboring countries continue to maintain their own missile capabilities.

"So we'll be working on a parallel effort with the Gulf nations to address non-nuclear issues such as the conventional ballistic missiles, which we'll be talking about and support. I mean, they have to have some because other people have some. You gotta have some," the president said on Wednesday. "Somebody said you shouldn't give them one. I mean, I have guys, I like some of these guys but I don't think they're smart. Sir, you shouldn't let them have any missiles. I said well, what am I going to do? Am I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but they can't have them? Yes sir. It doesn't work that way, you know. It doesn't work that way, and missiles aren't the problem. Missiles hurt a little location, but they don't blow up the planet."

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Vice President JD Vance echoed similar arguments on Thursday after a reporter raised a leaked, unconfirmed assessment claiming that Iran still retains roughly 70 percent of its ballistic missile arsenal despite the damage inflicted during Operation Epic Fury.

"What has changed about the Iranian ballistic missile program is it matters much less the number of missiles they have, the number of bullets. What matters much more is the number of launchers they have and, importantly, the teams on the ground that have the capacity to launch those missiles," the vice president said. "Their ability to launch missiles has been substantially degraded. Is it zero? No, but it's substantially degraded, and in that sense, we haven't abandoned the mission. We've accomplished that particular part of the mission."

"If you look at the Gulf Arab allies, and obviously the Israelis who faced a lot, the two of them together, faced a brunt of these missile attacks, each of them feels substantially safer today from the Iranian missile threat than they did before," he continued. "Obviously, that is something that we would like to continue. All the President said yesterday is that you can't expect any country to give up its right of self-defense. You have to have parity, and that's what the President of the United States was talking about."

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This comes as the Trump administration has hailed the agreement as a victory for both peace and the United States, pointing to Iran's commitment to abandon its pursuit of a nuclear weapon. However, critics across the political spectrum, including some Israeli officials, have raised significant concerns about how the deal will be enforced, whether Iran will actually comply with its obligations or continue negotiating in good faith, and whether Tehran is truly prepared to stop funding terrorist proxy groups throughout the region. 

Those are all concerns the administration has sought to address by urging Americans to have faith in the agreement while emphasizing that the deal is backed by the credible threat of force. Administration officials have repeatedly assured the public that if Iran violates its commitments or begins playing games, the United States has no hesitation about resuming military strikes.

Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all. 

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