Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed Iran “begged” for the ceasefire deal made just ahead of the deadline set by President Donald Trump’s threats to wipe Iranian civilization off the map.
“No other president has shown the courage and resolve of this commander-in-chief,” Hegseth said during a Wednesday morning press conference. “President Trump forged this moment. Iran begged for this ceasefire, and we all know it.”
Hegseth claimed that Iran’s missile program had been “functionally destroyed” and that its navy “is at the bottom of the sea.” Iran’s air force has also been “wiped out,” he claimed, adding: “We own their skies.”
The U.S. carried out more than 800 strikes on Iran Tuesday night, Hegseth said, adding that the strikes “completely” destroyed Iran’s defense industrial base.
“They can no longer build rockets, build launchers or build UAVs. Their factories have been razed to the ground. Set back in historic fashion,” Hegseth said.
Had Iran declined Trump’s two-week ceasefire deal, the U.S. military’s next targets “would have been their power plants, their bridges and oil and energy infrastructure,” Hegseth said.
“Targets they could not defend, and could not realistically rebuild. It would’ve taken them decades and we were locked and loaded. They couldn’t defend against it,” he added.
Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, “understood that a deal was far better than the fate that awaited them,” Hegseth claimed. Khamenei is the son of Ali Khamenei, Iran’s previous supreme leader who was killed in the initial U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in late February.
Hegseth also claimed that the supreme leader is “wounded and disfigured.”
“This new regime is out of options and out of time, so they cut a deal,” Hegseth said. “They know this agreement means they will never, ever possess a nuclear weapon. Under the terms, any nuclear material they should not have will be removed.”
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