Washington: Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has said that if the US needs to, it will “negotiate with bombs”, as he warned Iran that American strikes would continue until Tehran agrees to President Donald Trump’s nuclear terms.
Speaking at US Central Command (CENTCOM) headquarters at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida Wednesday (Local time), Hegseth delivered one of the Trump administration’s bluntest warnings yet to Iran, saying additional military operations were already planned and could continue as long as Tehran refused to finalise a nuclear agreement with Washington.
“CENTCOM will be busy tonight because President Trump said, ‘ We will be hitting Iran hard, and we will be,” Hegseth told reporters after receiving operational briefings from CENTCOM commanders. “Iran has a chance to make a good deal, a great deal to codify what they said they’ve been willing to do, and they haven’t been willing to do it.”
The Pentagon chief said Iran had repeatedly delayed negotiations despite what he described as a fully developed diplomatic path offered by President Trump.
“As President Trump said, they’ve been tap-tap-tapping,” Hegseth said. “Instead, they’re gonna have tap, tap, tap bombs dropping on key facilities in Iran from the United States of America.”
He insisted the military pressure campaign was designed to strengthen diplomacy, not replace it.
“It’s because we are, the war department is prepared to set the terms to ensure that we get the kind of deal President Trump expects,” he said.
Hegseth also revealed new details about what he called “Project Freedom”, an operation aimed at ensuring commercial shipping continues through the Strait of Hormuz despite the ongoing confrontation with Iran.
According to the secretary, more than 100 million barrels of oil have moved through the strategic waterway under U.S. protection.
“The United States of America controls the Strait of Hormuz,” Hegseth said. “We’re able to bring oil in and out and other things with partners and have done so now for weeks and weeks in ways the Iranians don’t want to acknowledge.”
He said American forces had also enforced a blockade against Iranian maritime trade, claiming nearly 140 vessels attempting to enter or leave Iranian ports had been stopped. Hegseth noted that another tanker had been disabled after violating the blockade.
The secretary argued that recent operations had dramatically weakened Iran’s military capabilities.
“Add that to what the United States military with Central Command did to their navy, to their air force, to their air defences, to their power projection capabilities,” he said. “We know exactly on this ledger who’s on the strong end and who is not.”
Asked whether future strikes could target bridges, electrical infrastructure or other facilities, Hegseth declined to discuss operational details but rejected suggestions that US actions were indiscriminate.
“We will hit them hard on our terms, on the targets that improve the environment for us to operate in and undermine the capabilities that Iran wants to have,” he said.
The secretary repeatedly returned to the administration’s central message that Iran still had a choice.
“Iran has an opportunity to make a deal,” he said. “President Trump is a deal maker, the best in the world. He’s prepared to make that deal. Iran would be wise to take it.”
Hegseth signalled that further military action was imminent.
“The president will turn to the war department,” he said. “If we need to negotiate with bombs, we’ll negotiate with bombs. And we’re very good at it. Nobody is better in the world.”
The Trump administration has made preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon the central objective of its Middle East strategy. Washington and Tehran have engaged in intermittent negotiations for months, but talks have repeatedly stalled over the scope of Iran’s nuclear programme and the sequencing of sanctions relief.
