Hegseth says US ready to resume military action if Iran talks fail
US War Secretary Pete Hegseth said Washington is prepared to return to military action if negotiations fail to ensure the Islamic Republic never obtains a nuclear weapon.
Speaking at a White House Cabinet meeting, Hegseth said President Donald Trump had created the conditions to protect Americans and the wider world from what he called a generational threat from Iran.
“There’s only one man over the course of both presidencies who has stood up and said they will never get a nuclear weapon,” Hegseth said, referring to Trump.
He cited Trump’s killing of Qasem Soleimani, withdrawal from the Obama-era nuclear deal, the 12-day war and subsequent US military operations against Iran as part of a broader pressure campaign aimed at stopping Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Hegseth said the United States had avoided what he described as the old approach of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
“Instead, you said, we’re going to do this smart. We’re going to do it overwhelming. We’re going to use maximum lethality. And we’re going to bring them to their knees,” Hegseth said.
He said Iran’s navy was “at the bottom of the Persian Gulf” and that its air force, air defenses and defense industrial base had been heavily damaged.
“They may have missiles, but they can’t build more right now. And they can’t build more drones right now. And they can’t build more ships,” he said.
Hegseth said those losses helped bring Tehran to talks with US envoys, including Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Vice President JD Vance.
He also said the United States had imposed a “world-class blockade” on Iranian ports, preventing goods from entering or leaving and badly hurting Iran’s economy.
“We know from the intel that their economy is hurting big time because that is their lifeblood,” he said.
Hegseth added that Washington had expanded pressure on Iran’s shadow tanker fleet.
“No Iranian tanker around the globe is safe,” he said, pointing to seizures he said had further choked off Tehran’s economic lifeline.
He said the goal remained to ensure Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon, either through negotiations or, if necessary, by returning to military action.
