The United States expects to have “complete” control of Iranian airspace in the coming hours, the White House said on Wednesday, March 4, the fifth day of US-Israeli operations against the Islamic Republic of Iran. “We expect to have complete and total dominance over Iranian airspace in the coming hours,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier in the day that the United States and Israel “will have complete control of Iranian skies, uncontested airspace,” without giving a specific timeline. That means “we will fly all day, all night, day and night, finding, fixing and finishing the missiles and defense industrial base of the Iranian military,” Hegseth said.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday rated the US performance in the war with Iran as a 15 on a scale of 10, saying the Islamic Republic of Iran’s leaders were rapidly being killed, and vowing to push on. Trump’s comments came as the conflict expanded on its fifth day, with a US submarine sinking an Iranian warship off the coast of Sri Lanka and fresh blasts across the Middle East.
“We’re doing well on the war front, to put it mildly. Somebody said on a scale of 10, where would you rate it? I said about a 15,” Trump told a gathering of tech bosses at the White House. “We’re in a very strong position now, and their leadership is just rapidly going. Everybody that seems to want to be a leader, they end up dead.”
Trump added that Tehran’s arsenal of ballistic missiles was being “wiped out rapidly.” He repeated his justifications for attacking Iran, saying Tehran was on its way to obtaining a nuclear weapon. “When crazy people have nuclear weapons, bad things happen,” Trump added.
The US leader pledged that he would “continue forward” with the joint air campaign with Israel that has already slain Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei on its opening day on Saturday.
‘No new wars’
Trump’s administration has faced criticism after days of mixed messages about the rationale for the war, given the Republican’s previous campaign boasts about starting “no new wars.”
The US Senate on Wednesday rejected a resolution aimed at curbing Trump’s authority to continue military strikes on Iran, in a narrow congressional show of support for a conflict launched without explicit approval from lawmakers.
The bipartisan measure, introduced by Democrat Tim Kaine and Republican Rand Paul, would have required the withdrawal of US forces from hostilities against Iran unless Congress authorizes the campaign. But with Republicans holding a 53-47 majority in the upper chamber of Congress and largely backing the president’s decision to attack Iran alongside Israel, the resolution fell short by exactly that margin.
Unease on Capitol Hill
The vote came five days into a rapidly expanding conflict that has already killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and several senior figures in Tehran, while US troops have died in an Iranian attack on a US base in Kuwait.
Democrats argue Trump unconstitutionally bypassed Congress when he ordered the air campaign and say the administration has offered shifting justifications for the war. “Let me say it this way, there was no presentation of any evidence in that room (…) that suggested that the US faced any imminent threat from Iran,” Kaine told AFP after a classified briefing from administration officials.
Republicans have largely rallied behind their leader, though some have signaled their support could wane if the war expands or drags on.
“Roadside bombs coming out of Iran have maimed and killed hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans,” Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s top loyalists in the Senate and a longtime advocate of confronting Iran, posted on X. “They mean it when they say ‘death to America.’ I’m glad we didn’t let it go further. I’m glad we didn’t let them build more missiles.”
The debate in Congress over Trump’s authority to wage war reflects broader unease on Capitol Hill about the scope and duration of the military campaign. Administration officials told lawmakers in classified briefings this week that the operation could last weeks and may require additional funding from Congress.
‘Historic gains’
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin’s Netanyahu’s office said, on Thursday, that Israel and the US have made “historic gains” in the war against Iran. “Israel and the United States have together made historic gains to protect our citizens and the civilized world,” a spokesperson for Netanyahu, Shosh Bedrosian, said in a video message.
She also claimed the attack was needed as Iran was rebuilding its atomic bomb programme in “new underground bunkers,” and because there were indications of an Iranian plans “to attack Israel and American forces in the Middle East.”