Pete Hegseth has issued a stark warning to Iran as U.S. strikes continue. The U.S. Defense Secretary threatened further bombing if Iran does not agree to a peace deal. This comes amid escalated tensions between Washington and Tehran.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has a warning for Iran
Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday that U.S. forces stand ready to bomb “key facilities” in Iran on President Donald Trump’s orders. Speaking after a briefing at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Florida, Hegseth made clear that Iran had been offered an opportunity to negotiate and had passed it up.
“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,” Hegseth said. Furthermore, he made the warnings during his speech, using bashing language to describe Iran’s approach to diplomacy. He accused Tehran of stalling rather than engaging seriously.
“As President Trump said, they’ve been tap, tap, tapping,” Hegseth told reporters, suggesting Iran was dragging its feet at the negotiating table. “You can see when someone’s trying to tap, tap, tap on a deal, instead they’re going to have tap, tap, tap bombs dropping on key facilities in Iran from the United States of America.”
He went further, accusing Iran of “choosing to play games” before posing a threat. “If we need to negotiate with bombs, we’ll negotiate with bombs, and we’re very good at it,” he said.
The remarks came as the U.S. and Iran struck each other across the Middle East for a second consecutive day — putting serious strain on a ceasefire the two countries agreed to in April. U.S. Central Command confirmed it carried out a wave of what it called “self-defense strikes,” hitting military, surveillance, and radar sites in southern Iran. The strikes followed Trump’s warning that Tehran had taken “too long to make a deal” to permanently end the war (via Reuters).
