IDF says most Iranian military targets hit as US signals end of campaign

The IDF Spokesperson’s Office issued a statement on Saturday saying that it has nearly completed striking its list of key targets among Iran’s military-industrial infrastructure and expects to finish its planned operations there in the coming days.

This comes at the end of the first full month of the current war against Iran, which most analysts agree is an extension of the 12-Day War last June, which was itself an expansion of the War of Redemption, which began when Hamas carried out the massacre of Oct. 7, 2023.

The IDF assessment also comes as Trump Administration officials are signaling that the American campaign to degrade Iran’s nuclear program, ballistic missile production capacity and other strategic assets is also coming to an end. However, what’s left of the Iranian regime has made it clear that this war won’t be over until they say it’s over, and their proxy in Yemen, the Houthis rebels, joined the battle on Saturday by launching ballistic missiles at Israel.

However, over the weekend, the IDF struck the headquarters of Iran’s Marine Industries Organization, which works on producing ships and weapons for the IRGC Navy. Steel plants and other heavy industrial assets were also targeted, prompting IDF Spokesman Effie Defrin to declare at the Saturday evening press conference that “within a few days” the list of critical strategic military and industrial targets will all have been hit.

He added, “This means we will destroy most of the military production capabilities, and it will take the regime a long time to restore them.”

However, some analysts have warned that Iran has vast defense industrial facilities that are buried underground in order to hide them from Western intelligence agencies and protect them from attacks. These facilities are also dispersed over a wide geographic area, making them difficult to locate and target. Despite these difficulties, the IDF estimates it has already hit 90% of these facilities, and most are no longer functioning.

Amidst these assessments, U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who is nominally expected to be meeting with Iranian regime officials to discuss terms for a cessation of hostilities in the near future, sat down on Saturday evening with conservative political commentator Benny Johnson on his podcast “The Benny Show.”

During this interview, Vance said, among other things, that America has “accomplished the vast majority of our military projects.”

“The president’s going to keep at it for a little while longer to ensure that once we leave, we don’t have to do this again for a very, very long time,” Vance said. “This country is threatening us in all these ways. They’re still trying to build a nuclear weapon. We need to neuter them for a very, very long time, and that’s the purpose.”

This is a notable departure from rhetoric earlier in March, indicating that the Trump administration had hoped for regime change in Tehran.

Johnson also asked him about something that almost all Americans are very concerned about, and that’s the price of gasoline, diesel, and all the things that get moved around by trucks that run on these fuels. 

Vance did not deny that there is pain for American consumers because of these issues, but said that this is a “very temporary reaction to what is going to ultimately be a short-term conflict.” He went on to say, “We’re not interested in being in Iran a year down the road or two years down the road. We’re taking care of business. We’re going to be out of there soon, and gas prices are going to come back down.”

This is a fairly consistent message coming out of the Trump administration in recent days as global energy markets have been roiled by events in this war, especially the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20% of daily crude oil shipments move, along with a large percentage of globally traded liquefied natural gas and many other commodities.

The administration has sought to calm markets and consumers, but analysts have warned that a prolonged conflict may have severe economic, political and social repercussions worldwide.