Iran must abandon nuclear weapon ‘in meaningful and verifiable ways,’ Hegseth says
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Iran must abandon any pursuit of a nuclear weapon “in meaningful and verifiable ways,” warning that Washington would maintain pressure if it does not.
“All they have to do is abandon a nuclear weapon in meaningful and verifiable ways,” Hegseth told a Pentagon briefing, adding Iran has “an important choice, a chance to make a deal, a good deal, a wise deal.”
He said the United States is “not anxious for a deal,” and warned Tehran could instead face “the regime’s fragile economic state collapse under the unrelenting pressure of American power… a blockade as long as it takes.”
Hegseth said US forces had already seized two Iranian “dark fleet” ships in the Indo-Pacific, adding: “They thought they’d made it out just in time. They did not… we will seize more.”
He added the blockade was expanding globally, saying “34 total non-Iranian vessels are allowed to transit,” while warning “the clock is not on their side.”
