US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters at Capitol Hill that the hardest hits are yet to come from the American military. Speaking ahead of a classified briefing for congressional leaders, Rubio argued that U.S.-Israeli strikes against Iran were intended to address an imminent threat and went on to describe an attack undertaken preemptively. He said the United States would strike Iran until it had achieved its objectives, including the destruction of Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities.

Meanwhile, US President Trump said that the United States would attack Iran for as long as it took to leave it incapable of posing a threat, indicating that the expanding war in the Middle East could continue for weeks or more. Trump said this at his first public event since U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran began on Saturday. Listing those objectives at the White House earlier in the day, Trump said, they are destroying Iran’s missile capability and are doing that hourly. He said the strikes were annihilating their navy and ensuring that this sick and sinister regime in Tehran can never obtain a nuclear weapon or continue to sponsor militant groups across the Middle East.