Hegseth says he welcomes deal with Iran, but Pentagon will keep ‘negotiating with bombs’ |
Hegseth says he welcomes deal with Iran, but Pentagon will keep ‘negotiating with bombs’
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he would welcome a U.S.-led negotiated peace deal with Iran, after President Trump indicated earlier this week that Hegseth was “disappointed” by the idea, but the secretary warned on Thursday that the Pentagon will keep “negotiating with bombs.”
Hegseth said during a White House Cabinet meeting that he appreciates special envoy Steve Witkoff’s efforts to negotiate with Tehran and “we pray for a deal, and we welcome a deal and we have the ultimate dealmaker to make it happen.”
“But in the meantime, as I said yesterday, the Department of War will continue negotiating with bombs. War is negotiation by other means,” the Pentagon head said.
On Tuesday, Trump said that Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were the “only two people that were quite disappointed” by the prospect of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran potentially ending soon.
“I think this thing’s going to be settled very soon, and they go, ‘Oh, that’s too bad.’ Pete didn’t want it to be settled,” the president said following the swearing-in of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
“They were not interested in settlement. They were interested in just winning this thing,” Trump added.
Trump at the Cabinet meeting addressed news reports of U.S. negotiations with Iran, saying that Tehran, not Washington, is “begging” for a deal.
“And anyone who saw what’s happening over there would understand why they want to make a deal,” the president said during the meeting.
Iran has denied that it is negotiating with the Trump administration as the war in the Middle East rages on in its fourth week, though Pakistani mediators confirmed that a U.S. proposal was delivered to the Iranians.
The U.S. military has struck more than 10,000 targets inside Iran and has destroyed two-thirds of the country’s naval, missile and drone production sites, Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, said in an update Wednesday.
“We know that President Trump has given us a clear mission,” Hegseth said Thursday. “Our capabilities are only going up, and Iran’s are plummeting. We are here to win, and we’re full speed ahead.”
During the Cabinet meeting, Hegseth also reiterated that the conflict that Operation Epic Fury is not “an endless war.”
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