Sen. Ted Cruz said the United States should press forward with its military campaign against Iran until the current leadership is removed, arguing that recent operations have already dealt a major blow to the regime.

Cruz made the remarks during an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Jesse Watters Primetime,” where he was asked about the direction of negotiations in the coming days.

“Senator, these negotiations, what do you expect this week?” host Jesse Watters asked.

Responding, Cruz pointed to what he described as significant military achievements over the past three weeks. “Well, listen, the first three weeks of this military conflict have been incredibly successful. In three weeks, we have taken out all of Iran’s air defenses. We’ve taken out virtually every one of their short range and medium range ballistic missiles. We’ve taken out their missile production capacity. We’ve taken out their drone capacity. We’ve taken out their drone manufacturing. You look at what we’ve done to the Navy. We’ve had over 8,000 strikes in Iran and on the Navy, we have sunk more than 120 ships. This is the largest naval defeat, the most ships sunk since World War II. That’s in three weeks. And in addition to that, we have decapitated the regime, taking out not just the Ayatollah, but the senior military leaders, the mullahs, who have been tyrants in that country for 47 years. The outcome, I believe, should be simple and straightforward.”

He went on to describe what he believes should follow from the military campaign, emphasizing the need for a different type of leadership in Iran. “We want to see a government in Iran that is not run by crazed Islamists who lead mobs chanting, ‘Death to America,’” he continued. “We want a government that is not the largest funder of terrorism in the world, that is not giving 90 percent of the funding to Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis and we want a government that is not murdering Americans. The Iranian regime has killed nearly 1,000 Americans. The Ayatollah twice hired hit men trying to kill President Trump, and so President Trump has reacted with strength that is making America much safer. As you noted, the Strait of Hormuz, Iran has been trying to put economic pressure on the world, and the President responded with an ultimatum, you open the Strait of Hormuz or you will face crushing economic blows to Iran. I think that got their attention, and the President said, we made some progress. I’m hopeful that’s right.”