Donald Trump said the US military could eliminate all the remaining targets of what’s left of the Iranian regime “within an hour”. Speaking to reporters outside the White House, the US President bragged that “we could do a lot worse” to Tehran, after claiming to have wiped out its navy and air force.

When asked what was needed for the war to end, he responded: “More of the same, and we’ll see how that all comes out. Right now, they’ve lost their navy, they’ve lost their air force, they have no anti-aircraft apparatus at all, they have no radar, their leaders are gone.

“And we could do a lot worse. We’re leaving certain things that if we take them out, we could take them out by this afternoon, in fact, within an hour, they literally would never be able to build that country back.”

Earlier on the White House lawn, Mr Trump said US forces were “doing something that nobody thought was possible” in Iran, which he said had been “killing and maiming” people for 47 years.

He said: “Day 11, and as you know, we’re doing something that nobody ever thought was possible to do. Our military is the best, it’s the most powerful in the world, and they’re hitting them very hard.

“It’s 47 years of abuse and killing lots of people, killing and maiming lots of people.”

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The US President has also been working to get vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz again – a critical chokepoint through which a fifth of the world’s oil must pass.

Mr Trump broke the news on his platform Truth Social, saying US forces had “hit, and completely destroyed, 10 inactive mine-laying boats and/or ships, with more to follow”.

US Central Command then reported that the number of mine layers “eliminated” near the strait was 16. Any attempt to mine the Strait of Hormuz would bring consequences at a “level never seen before,” Mr Trump added

He said: “If Iran has put out any mines in the Hormuz Strait, and we have no reports of them doing so, we want them removed, IMMEDIATELY!”