War Secretary Pete Hegseth touted the military’s destruction of Iran’s fighting forces, arsenals, and defense industrial base hours after the fragile ceasefire between the two countries began.
“The War Department, for now, for now, has done its part. We stand ready in the background to ensure Iran upholds every reasonable term,” he said. “To the warriors of [Operation] Epic Fury, I say, ‘Well done.’ You’re the backbone of our country. Your skill, your bravery, and sheer guts and grit showed the world what America is all about. I’m proud of you. We’re proud of you, the president is proud of you. Job well done.”
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Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Wednesday briefing at the Pentagon was the first since the United States and Iran agreed to a conditional two-week ceasefire agreement, which went into effect on Tuesday night, about an hour and a half before President Donald Trump’s deadline. The deal, which Pakistan helped broker, prevented Trump from going through with his threat to order strikes on Iranian infrastructure that would’ve devastated the country.
The secretary spoke about the “historic and overwhelming victory” in the past tense, though he was quick to warn that the military is prepared to restart operations if Iran breaks the terms of the agreement.
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Hegseth maintained that Iran has undergone regime change, given that so many senior leaders in the regime prior to the war’s beginning were killed during it, even though it’s not clear whether the policies and viewpoints of the new leaders will be meaningfully different from their slain predecessors.
“Their top leadership was systematically eliminated,” Hegseth said. “The previous Iranian supreme leader, dead, the supreme National Security Council secretary, dead, the supreme leader office adviser, dead, the supreme leader military office chief, dead, the defense minister no longer with us. The IRGC commander, dead. The armed forces general staff commander, intelligence minister, dead, the IRGC Navy commander, no longer here. The IRGC intel chief. I skipped over a bunch, and I could go on and on and on.”
The U.S. struck more than 13,000 targets during the war, while Iran launched ballistic missiles and drones at targets across the region, hitting countries not directly involved in the conflict. Thirteen U.S. service members were killed, seven in Iranian attacks, while more than 300 were wounded, though the vast majority of them sustained minor injuries.
Hegseth also noted that there may be instances, as have occurred already, in which Iranian forces still carry out attacks in the Gulf because the decentralized structure of Iran’s military makes communicating with field commanders more difficult.
Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar all reported missile and drone attacks in the hours after the ceasefire commenced.
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“We were monitoring it last night in real time, of course, we are. Iran would be wise to find a way to get the carrier pigeon to their troops out in remote locations to know not to shoot, not to shoot any longer, one-way attacks or missiles, because this takes time sometimes for ceasefires to take hold. We’re watching it. We’re prepared if necessary, but we hope and believe that it’ll hold,” Hegseth added.
He also maintained that the military was “locked and loaded,” ready to carry out Trump’s orders to hit Iranian infrastructure and had targets selected before the deal came together.
“We were locked and loaded. They couldn’t defend against it. President Trump had the power to cripple Iran’s entire economy in minutes, but he choose he chose mercy,” he said.
The ceasefire agreement will allow the U.S. and Iran to negotiate a more comprehensive long-term agreement for better relations, but there are several issues still to be hammered out, including what will happen with Iran’s buried enriched uranium, whether they will have a civil nuclear program going forward, and more.
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“There will be no enrichment of Uranium, and the United States will, working with Iran, dig up and remove all of the deeply buried (B-2 Bombers) Nuclear ‘Dust,’” Trump said on Truth Social, referring to Operation Midnight Hammer, the U.S. military’s mission to destroy three Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025.
