SPECIAL REPORT: Iran Military DECIMATED; Israel & U.S. MASSIVE Strikes on Tehran | The Watchman

It is 2 a.m. in Tel Aviv and the operation, the joint operation between the U.S. and Israel against Iran's regime continues. I'm Eric Stakelbeck. This is a TBN special report. Operation Epic Fury, that's what President Trump is calling it, Israel is calling it. Operation Roaring Lion. We're wrapping up day two of this historic effort

to number one, depose Iran's regime. That's hopefully the end game here. But number two, decimate Iran's nuclear weapons program. And more importantly, even perhaps at this juncture, its ballistic missile program. Over the next 30 minutes,

we will bring you top experts, Middle East, from DC and beyond, and unpacking what's happening in the world's most chaotic and strategic region right now, and why it impacts you no matter where you live. Let's get up to speed right now.

It's 7 p.m. here in Washington, DC, and what we have today, some pretty major developments. Number one, we learned that three US soldiers have been killed so far in this engagement. And President Trump spoke just a short while ago, and he said, look, there may be more casualties.

That's the price that we have to pay here to once and for all eliminate the world's number one state sponsor of terrorism, the Iranian regime. So we have three US deaths, sadly. Number two, earlier today, an Iranian regime. So we have three US deaths, sadly. Number two earlier today, an Iranian ballistic missile

struck Betshemes just outside of Jerusalem in Israel. Nine people were killed in that Iranian missile strike. And just a short while ago, another Iranian missile fell just

outside of Jerusalem. Several people were wounded in that attack. In the meantime, Iran also continues to launch missiles and drones at the surrounding Arab and Muslim nations like Qatar, Bahrain, and in particular,

the United Arab Emirates. So things are heating up on that front, but here's the good news. The United States and Israel have had smashing success over the past 48 hours in decimating Iran's military capabilities.

And of course, yesterday, the big one, the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, he was killed in this joint US-Israel operation. So Khamenei is no more. And also, you may remember a name,

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, not too long ago, about a decade ago, he was the president of Iran, a notorious Israel hater, anti-Semite. He also was killed,

we're hearing reports, in these engagements over the last 48 hours. So the question is now, how long does this all last? President Trump said, look,

when he addressed the nation a short while ago, this could last for weeks. We're not quite sure, but he also added, and folks, key point here, that Iranian military officials, leaders, remaining leaders that haven't been eliminated, remember, some 40 of them were killed in the opening juncture of this offensive, but they are apparently behind the scenes,

these Iranian leaders, reaching out to the US, the administration. They want to talk, perhaps they want a deal to end the barrage against them, but it is unfolding right now as we speak. And we're joined right now by national security expert, Victoria Coates.

Victoria, always great to see you. Hey, you worked for President Trump, advised him during his first term. And I think a big takeaway here, peace through strength. We're seeing it right now, Victoria, in real time. Can you tell us a bit more about the total game changer,

geopolitical and really historic game changer that Donald Trump has been, in particular in the second term? This has lasted, this Iranian crisis, through seven presidencies dating back to 1979. Donald Trump is the first commander-in-chief

to finally take the bold action needed to resolve it.

No, you're absolutely right, Eric, and great to be with you. Thank you for having me on. This is something everyone said you couldn't possibly do. You couldn't attack Iran. They were going to take all of these actions that were going to be so detrimental. And as the president pointed out tonight, and I would just add on that front, I mean, the president has addressed the American people

twice in two days about what he's doing and why. We never heard from Joe Biden about the Ukraine war and what he was doing and why. And so what we have is the president reaching out, telling us, this is what's going to happen. He's not trying to sugarcoat anything.

He, both on his first statement and then again tonight, talked about the possibility of casualties. Today we had three casualties in Kuwait. We all mourn those heroes. Our prayers go out to the families of the wounded. But this is our president who's bringing

the American people along. And what he's saying is, this is about your future. This is how we are going to make a better future for the people of the United States, where this threat isn't hanging over your head 24 seven for another 47 years.

So amazing job by our military over the last 36 hours, but there's a lot more work to be done.

Yeah, I present Trump no doubt is an historic figure. I think there's no doubt about a Victoria at this point. And every time it seems that he uses the military and he doesn't want to use it. He wants to use it sparingly, of course, the full might of the US military. But Victoria, it seems like he does it wisely, shrewdly, quickly. What sets apart the objectives here in Iran and what we've seen so far in this operation from previous US operations in the Middle East in particular? Well, he doesn't use our military as a messaging device.

This isn't a pinpricks strike, something Secretary Kerry said 10 years ago, just a little something. No, if he has an objective, he's going to go and he's going to get it.

And he learned, I mean, it wasn't his wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but he's learned the lesson of those wars. That in terms of our ability to impose democracy on other nations, we are very limited in that. And that's why his message to the Iranian

people has been, this is gonna be your mission. We are gonna do this because to end the threat of a nuclear Iran is in the interests of the American people. Great, that's our mission, that's our errand. But if you wanna take advantage of what we've done in terms of weakening the regime, in terms of giving you more latitude to act, great, then this is your moment,

but you're gonna have to take it. So rather than our coming in with hundreds of thousands of boots on the ground to turn Iran into Virginia, we're rather going to let the Iranian people do that once we have removed

the threat to the American people. Yeah, the Iranian people have this golden opportunity now. We're praying they seize it. Hey, how about China and Russia, Victoria? I think of that modern day axis of evil Iran, North Korea, China, Russia, the toppling of Iran's regime, God willing, what message does that send to China and Russia? And in a broader sense, how does it affect them? I'm thinking China with cheap oil and gas they were getting from Iran, Russia and Iran, obviously a close alliance. Vladimir Putin mourned the death of Ayatollah Khamenei yesterday.

What kind of impact does it have on our chief geopolitical adversaries, China and Russia?

Well, it hasn't been a great couple of days, Eric, to be a member of the so-called Axis of Evil. We could even take this back to January, and they've lost Venezuela as well. And Cuba is on the brink. And so President Trump, instead of just accepting the axis of evil as something that we have to deal with, he's like, no, I'm going to change this. I'm not going to leave these threats to the American people hanging over our heads. And so in doing what he's just done, as you mentioned, he's cut off Venezuelan cheap gas to China.

We might be cutting off Iranian cheap gas to China. This is going to really impact Chairman Xi where he lives. And bear in mind, we have this very high stakes summit coming up

between President Trump and Chairman Xi next month, theoretically, in China. If that holds, President Trump is setting himself up to go in a position of enormous strength.

And what has Xi been up to for the last two months? I haven't seen a lot of Chinese activity on the world stage.

Yeah, Victoria Wells said, hey, about 30 seconds left. Again, you advise President Trump during his first term. You know the man well, you know the man well, you know the administration well, how they operate. How would you describe in about 30 seconds,

the Trump doctrine and what we're seeing unfold right now in Iran?

No, I mean, this is, as you said, America first, this is peace through strength. This is the president flexing a lot of US muscle in order to make a dramatic change. And so I think what we are going to see here is a new Middle East.

He promised peace in the Middle East. He's about to deliver on it. And the key thing here, Eric, is Iran is isolated. Everyone told us Israel was going to be isolated if we went in. That's not

the case. It's Iran that's isolated. The region is rallying behind, particularly the United States and President Trump.

Victoria Coats, great breakdown as always, folks. Be sure to follow Victoria on X across social media. Victoria, we'll see you again soon, keep it up.

God bless. And folks, one of the big developments we're seeing here. Okay, number one, President Trump's action in Iran is weakening that axis.

We're talking China, Russia, Iran, North Korea. That's a good thing. But also by extension, we're seeing a new alliance form perhaps in the Middle East, Israel and the US of course, but

joined in a more forceful way by Arab Muslim nations like Saudi Arabia, like United Arab Emirates, like Bahrain, that are under fire right now, courtesy of Iran.

The Iranian regime over the past 48 hours has fired hundreds of missiles, rockets, and drones at these Arab Muslim nations. Joining us now to break that down and the broader implications is our good friend, you know him very well, folks, host of the Rosenberg Report every Thursday night right here on TBN, editor in chief of all Israel news. Joel, you have spent so much time, not only in Israel of course where you're based,

but in the Arab and Muslim world, meeting with the leaders of these nations, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, the list goes on. What are the ramifications here, short term but long term, now that they are under siege?

The Iranian regime again has fired hundreds of missiles and drones at Arab Muslim nations surrounding Iran in the past 48 hours. Major regional shift, you think, maybe in the offing here?

These are tectonic shifts in the region, Eric, absolutely. I think the Iranian regime has made several major strategic errors. First of all, of course, that they didn't listen to President Trump. They didn't believe that President Trump was going to keep his word and destroy their offensive military capabilities and take them down if they didn't make a serious, strong, verifiable deal. So that was catastrophic and for Ali Khamenei, he lost his life over it.

The top 40 most powerful, most wicked regime leaders are all dead and there's more to come. So that's the first mistake they made. The second mistake they made was by not just retaliating against Israel. If they had just retaliated against Israel, then they would be sending the message throughout the region that really this is an Iran-Israel fight. But what they've done, the Iranian regime has attacked 16 nations throughout the entire

Middle East. They've attacked almost every neighbor that they have, mostly moderate Sunni Arab states, who had signaled in recent weeks that they were gonna be neutral, right? And the US couldn't fly over their territory and they weren't gonna be involved.

But the United Arab Emirates alone has taken more than 700 missile and drone attacks just in the last 48 hours. And all of them are now unified with President Trump and with Israel against the Iranian regime. This is a big deal.

And I think the Sunni Arabs should actually militarily get involved in destroying the Iranian regime with us.

Wow, perhaps we see even an Arab version of NATO shaping up here, Joel. And you know, the UAE under fire, you and I were there together on the ground in Abu Dhabi just a few years ago. And we loved it there. And we're so impressed by everyone in the UAE, their great relationship with Israel. So let's see if they can kind of galvanize together with their fellow Sunni Muslim nations in the region. That may be coming in the days to come, as you said. By the way, you and I were talking off camera

before we kick things off here. It has not escaped my attention or yours that Purim is upon us. Now this is obviously the Jewish holiday commemorating the freedom of the Jewish people, the death of a previous Persian tyrant by the name of Haman.

It's outlined in the book of Esther. Now we see Khamenei, a modern day Persian tyrant, on the eve of Purim, he meets his demise. Joel, do you see God's hand at work here perhaps?

I absolutely do. This is not coincidence and it's not a strategy by President Trump or Prime Minister Netanyahu to launch this offensive, to end the war and win the war that Iran declared on the United States and Israel 47 years ago,

and has been waging without the United States and Israel doing much in response, certainly without the United States doing it. But the fact that this is Purim, that the death of Haman, and now we have the death of Hamanayi,

this is like, I think it's prophetic. I think it's biblical. I think President Trump is going to go down as not only a historic figure, but an historic American leader of biblical proportions. And you have to understand that, you know,

eight years ago I was a never-Trumper and I changed my mind because I saw President Trump keeping his word. He told the Iranian regime back in the first term, hey, make a deal with me and you can go on with your lives. But if you don't make deals with me to get rid of your terror campaign

and your terror infrastructure, then we will impose the worst possible economic sanctions, diplomatic sanctions. And then eventually he said, I might have to go military. And they still didn't listen. I believe God hardened the heart of Hamanayi, the Ayatollah,

just as God hardened the heart of Pharaoh. That Moses gave the leaders of Egypt an opportunity to let my people go, stop terrorizing the nation of Israel, and Pharaoh wouldn't do it, couldn't do it. And God finally hardened his heart. I think that's what God has done here.

The key for President Trump is he's not doing it for Israel. President Trump is doing this for the United States to protect American lives, American interests, but also American allies, which Israel is the most important American ally in the Middle East.

But President Trump is also doing this to protect American ally in the Middle East, but he's all President Trump is also doing this to protect American interests in the Middle East and our Arab allies and that's right. That is good The president is not listening clearly to the Tucker Candace Owens Nick Fuentes new and neo-nazi Nick Fuentes wing Or what they think is a wing of the Republican Party President President Trump has not listened to them at all, and God bless them for it.

Yeah, and thank God for that and

Joel and hopefully that Tucker Carlson win which is viciously, I don't use that word lightly, viciously anti-Israel. Hopefully they will be marginalized in the wake of what is so

far a very successful operation. We talked about the biblical historic links between Persia, which is modern day Iran, Joel, and Israel. They're in the Bible. Think of King Cyrus, the Persian king who released the Jewish people from captivity,

allowed them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple. Now we kind of have the script being flipped a bit in that now the people of Israel are in a sense helping to free the people of Israel are in a sense helping to free the people of Iran from captivity. Can you talk about the potential, Joel, for the Iranian people and the Iranian church in particular?

Look, people may not realize, yes, it's the world's number one state sponsor of terrorism, but Iran is also home to the world's fastest growing church, mostly underground, of course, because of persecution, but it's there and it's growing and there seems to be unlimited potential for Iran if it can shake the yoke of this wicked regime.

Absolutely, we are seeing a spiritual awakening because the wicked tyrants and terrorists of Tehran have created an environment where Iranians have realized that if if the leaders of Iran are the most special and perfect Muslim leaders in the world, then they don't want to be Muslims anymore. They're abandoning Islam. Now some are going to atheism, some to agnosticism, but millions are turning to faith in Jesus Christ. It is the

single greatest spiritual awakening going on in the Muslim world, certainly in the Middle East. So that's very encouraging. I would also say that on the Rosenberg Report several years ago, I had the honor of having an interview with the exiled crown prince of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, right, who was the son of the exiled and late Shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, right, who was the son of the exiled and late Shah of Iran,

who was pro-American and pro-Israel and pro-Western in his day, though he was also quite cruel in the latter years of the Shah's government. But I had the opportunity to interview the crown prince, so the exiled crown prince, the son of the Shah, Reza Pahlavi, in Israel when he made his first ever historic visit there.

We should rerun that interview on the Rosenberg Report. You should run clips of it as well. Because one of the questions now that the Supreme Leader is rotting in hell is who will lead Iran going forward? And it's too early to say that Reza Pahlavi will be the guy right there's a lot more that would have to happen

But we need to start understanding who are these people and he said he wanted to make a Cyrus Accords deal with Israel making peace and I think the Iranian regime or the Iranian people are gonna thank the Israeli people for liberating them just the way Israeli Jews thank King Cyrus, that great Persian leader, for liberating us so many years ago.

Yeah, Joel, great way to close that. Wow, exciting times. Thank you for sharing that. The Cyrus Accords, folks, is at the doorstep. Joel, great job, my friend. We'll see you again soon.

God bless. And joining great job, my friend. We'll see you again soon, God bless. And joining us now, Senior Advisor for the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, right here in Washington, D.C., Richard Goldberg is with us. Richard, always great to see you. Hey, can you give us a sense right now,

we're talking about the state of play right now for this operation, how much damage has been inflicted, number one, upon Iran's leadership, but number two, upon its military infrastructure. And Richard, in particular, those underground ballistic missile facilities. Earlier today, we had some B-2 bombers pretty much do a round trip from Missouri to Iran and carry out some major airstrikes against those ballistic missile facilities buried

deep underground in Iran. Give us a little bit more information on the damage that has been inflicted upon the regime and its military assets.

Yeah, absolutely. First of all, if you felt a little bit of an awakening in the force, so to speak, when you woke up this morning, that's absolutely because the amount of evil that has left the world since Ali Khamenei and his top advisors were taken out in his offices.

That already is a major blow to the regime from a human capital perspective. Remember, they've lost Qasem Soleimani. President Trump took him out in

2020. They lost the person who was supposed to be the president of Iran, Raisi, went down in an accidental helicopter crash. They've had a number of instances

when they've gone to this B team around the Supreme Leader. Now the Supreme Leader himself is gone. Anybody who was sort of a senior strategist almost is all taken out. Others are probably being hunted down right now.

So from a human capital perspective, they are lagging now. Also, we see the Israelis going after the central command and control nodes of the regime. You're seeing them take down the Revolutionary Guard Corps facilities, the internal apparatus, the repression apparatus, the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, all being just

blown away with a lot of people inside as well. So from a command and control and communication perspective at the top levels, I think they're having a lot of difficulty. And then your question on the capabilities, what's happening there?

Well, the Americans, in coordination with the Israelis, by the way, unprecedented coordination that we are seeing in the skies, is just going round after round, sortie after sortie,

at all of the external threats that we've faced from the regime, grinding it down. That's the air defenses, their missile capabilities, ballistic missile and cruise missiles, and their drone factories and facilities and storage facilities, and their Navy that, of course, they use to threaten the Gulf and maritime traffic.

As you said, the B-2 bombers apparently overnight going and striking underground facilities. This is what the Iranians have called their missile cities. A lot of storage down there, missile launchers, missiles themselves. And so over time, even though we continue to see the launches, and they clearly have mobile systems that are able to get off missiles fired at Israel, fired at our bases, fired at our allies in the Gulf.

We are finding those in real time. Every single moment they fire a missile, we track the point of origin and we destroy the launcher. And so they're gonna be running low on these mobile systems for the solid fuel missiles very soon. And as far as the liquid fuel rockets that they have

in greater numbers, that takes more time for them to actually sit there and fuel two to three hours. If you can detect that in real time, you can destroy it preemptively. And we've seen some of those videos released as well. So from a military capability perspective, this regime is being grinded down. The leadership is being grinded away.

And then we understand from some of the press reports, the Israelis have a plan in mind to start going after more and more of that repression law enforcement apparatus, which might finally enable people to come back into the streets without fear of being gunned down and start taking the country back.

Yeah, that is the ultimate goal. God willing, that does happen. And President Trump said earlier today that the operation is actually ahead of schedule. Incredible accomplishments by the US and Israel. Historic, Richard, as you said, working in tandem.

And perhaps the Arab Gulf nations will get involved as well as they continue to be barraged by Iran. But I've been disappointed personally by Britain, France, Germany, the reaction from Western Europe. They're suddenly saying they'll get involved in a defensive capability apparently. What have you seen from our NATO allies so far in this operation?

Have you expected more?

Well, I'll say the positives first. Obviously, after we had seen the Brits claim that they wouldn't allow certain bases to be used by the United States for offensive military operations in the lead up to these set of strikes. We have seen the Brits, the Australians, the Canadians, our closest intelligence allies, what we call the Five Eyes, coming out right out of the gate Saturday saying, we support

this operation fully. This is justified, it's legitimate. Perhaps they had some of the intelligence that the president saw shared with them as well. And so that was important politically to get their support for the operations. We are not isolated,

despite what some of the opponents of the president would have you believe. Our closest allies are standing with us. And then you're right, as far as the Brits, they'd originally committed just to defensive operations, which by the way is important. It's important to

have more fighter jets in the sky, taking out the drones, the cruise missiles, anything else you can do that's coming towards Israel, that's coming towards our own bases. Hezbollah might be thinking about getting into the fight. Additional air power will be helpful. And then we've just heard in the last few hours that the Brits will in fact open their bases to the United States for offensive military operations. What the French do next,

I don't have high hopes for let's say, but important signals from the Brits that they are closing ranks with us at this important moment.

Richard Goldberg, great stuff as always my friend. Folks, be sure to follow him, FDD.org and on x across social media richard keep up the great work we know you're watching very closely we'll see you again soon and wow i think richard really gave a great breakdown folks of the unbreakable alliance between israel and the united states you're seeing it play out in real time right now i've said many times here

on tbn that israel this tiny nation the size of the state of New Jersey, imagine that, it's in the belly of the beast, in a sea of tyranny. It is the first line of defense for Judeo-Christian Western civilization. And the United States right now is the last line of defense for Judeo-Christian Western civilization. This is a civilizational struggle against radical jihadist Islam that is personified

by Iran's regime. Folks think about it. Nearly half a century of murder, mayhem, butchery. This regime came to power in 1979. What was its first act? Seizing the US embassy in Tehran, holding hostages, American hostages, 52 Americans,

for 444 days. That's how this regime introduced itself to the world. And since then, they've practically copyrighted the phrase, death to America. And it's not just words, not just words, key point. It has also been in action and President Trump has made the case over the past few days. He's laid out the stakes. Iran is responsible for the deaths of thousands.

Yes, thousands of Americans over the years in particular, during the Iraq war between 2003 and 2011, the Iranian regime threw its proxies on the ground in Iraq.

They were planting roadside bombs, IEDs, you know the term, improvised explosive devices that killed thousands of Americans, our fellow US citizens, our brave soldiers. Their blood is on the Iranian regime's hands. And what about the assassination plots against President Trump. Two assassination plots to take the president's life in 2024 alone. This is a wicked, I use that word advisedly and I mean it, a wicked regime and they just slaughtered, did the Ayatollahs, at least

32,000 of their own people in the streets. They go down in the annals, the dubious annals alongside Mao, Stalin, Hitler, and history's worst butchers. But guess what? They may be almost gone. They may end up very soon where they belong in the ash heap of history. So pray for the Iranian people. Pray for the US soldiers in the region, our forces. Pray for Israel. Pray for freedom for Iran, wisdom and discernment for President Trump, for Prime Minister Netanyahu. Pray for Israel. Pray for freedom for Iran, wisdom and discernment for President Trump,

for Prime Minister Netanyahu. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Folks, we live in momentous, historic times. There's no doubt about it. We're giving you a front row seat here on TBN. Check us out all week.

We'll have breaking updates on everything unfolding in the Middle East from an unapologetically biblical perspective and why it affects you no matter where you live. Check me out tomorrow night on Stackleback Tonight, 7.30, Pan Eastern Time for breaking updates. A lot happening and we'll have a front row seat for you.

Until then, have a great night and God bless. We'll see you soon.

We'll see you soon. We'll see you soon. We'll see you soon.