The U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, stated this Wednesday that President Donald Trump has made "history" with the "military victory" achieved in the recent operation against Iran. He stressed that, after the agreement reached, Tehran will cease to pose a danger and will renounce its nuclear program, as "all material they should not have" will be withdrawn.
"Iran has been a threat to the United States and the free world for 47 years of chants of 'Death to America', attacking our people, killing Americans, lying and blackmailing its way to a nuclear weapon, or so they thought," Hegseth declared in a press appearance alongside Chief of Staff, Dan Caine. With these words, he wanted to emphasize that this "will not happen again" under the Donald Trump Administration.
The head of the Pentagon reproached that "other presidents let time pass and kept postponing the problem. President Trump has made history," he affirmed, referring to a 40-day military campaign that has left a balance of thirteen deceased American military personnel.
Hegseth insisted that the "new regime" in Tehran "ran out of options and out of time" and was forced to accept a pact that states that it "will never possess a nuclear weapon." "Under the established terms, any material they should not have will be removed. At this moment, their nuclear 'dust' is deeply buried and monitored 24 hours from above. The president has been clear from the beginning: there will be no Iranian nuclear weapons," he stressed.
In this regard, he stressed that for the White House "it has always been non-negotiable" that Iran possesses nuclear capabilities. "We know exactly what they have, and they know it too. And they will hand it over to us voluntarily. We will get it. Or, if we have to do something ourselves, we will do it," he warned.
"Historic victory" and military presence in Hormuz
Hegseth proclaimed a "historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield" in operation 'Epic Fury', a surprise offensive launched last February 28 alongside Tel Aviv, with which, he affirmed, "every single one of the objectives" has been met within the scheduled timeline. He detailed that the Iranian Navy is "at the bottom of the sea", that the Iranian Air Force "has been annihilated" and that the country "no longer has air defense".
Similarly, he highlighted that the Iranian missile program has been "practically destroyed," so that "they can no longer build missiles, rockets, launchers, or drones." He added that, if Tehran had rejected Trump's ultimatum to seal a deal, the next targets would have been "power plants, bridges, and the oil and energy infrastructure," which, in his opinion, would have prevented the authorities from "realistically rebuilding" these facilities for decades.
Regarding the Strait of Hormuz, and despite considering the mission accomplished, Hegseth specified that American forces will remain deployed in the area to supervise adherence to the pact, including the security of navigation in this strategic enclave.
"We are not going anywhere. We will ensure that Iran complies with this ceasefire and, finally, sits at the table and makes a deal. So we will remain in our place, ready and vigilant," he explained.
The head of Defense also stressed that American troops are "prepared to go on the offensive and restart at any moment" operations if Iran breaches any of the points of the agreement, with special reference to the situation in Hormuz.
For his part, the Chief of Staff, Dan Caine, remarked that the U.S. Army "devastated the regime's ability to harm Americans and their interests for years to come," after attacking more than 13,000 targets, of which 4,000 were "dynamic" targets that emerged during the combat itself.
Caine detailed that, of the 10,000 combat missions carried out in Iranian territory, 62 involved strategic bombers and that 18 of those sorties were carried out on round-trip flights directly from the United States.