Hegseth on Monday said the US did not start the conflict with Iran but under President Trump it is working to bring it to an end as he outlined the rationale and scope of recent military operations against Tehran
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday said the United States did not start the conflict with Iran but under President Donald Trump it is working to bring it to an end as he outlined the rationale and scope of recent military operations against Tehran.
“We didn’t start this war, but under president Trump, we are finishing it,” The Guardian quoted Hegseth as saying while addressing a Pentagon press briefing.
Hegseth said that for “47 long years,” the Iranian regime has waged a “savage, one-sided war against America” through “the blood of our people, car bombs in Beirut, rocket attacks on our ships, murders at our embassies, roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
He described Iran as “building powerful missiles and drones to create a conventional shield for their nuclear blackmail ambitions” and said Tehran “had a conventional gun to our head as they tried to lie their way to a nuclear bomb.”
Referring to the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June, Hegseth said the US warned Iran of “far worse” consequences if it rebuilt its nuclear programme.
“They arrogantly refused,” he said, noting that Trump, top officials, and special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner “bent over backwards for real diplomacy.”
“The former regime had every chance to make a peaceful and sensible deal, but Tehran was not negotiating,” he added.
On the scope of Operation Epic Fury, Hegseth said US intelligence was “laser focused,” aiming to destroy Iranian offensive missiles, missile production facilities, the navy and other security infrastructure, and to ensure that Iran would never acquire nuclear weapons.
“We’re hitting them surgically, overwhelmingly and unapologetically,” he said.
The defence secretary also challenged media criticism, insisting that the US “set the terms of this war from start to finish” and that military ambitions “are not utopian.”
“This is not Iraq. This is not endless. I was there for both. Our generation knows better, and so does this president,” Hegseth said, responding to scrutiny of Trump’s claims that he “ended eight wars” while campaigning on keeping the US out of foreign conflicts.
Hegseth also confirmed the death of a fourth US service member in Iran’s counterattacks. “War is hell and always will be,” he said.
“Our grateful nation honors the four Americans we have lost thus far and those injured – the absolute best of America.”
With inputs from agencies
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