U.S. Plans Major Strikes on Iran, Hegseth Says

By C. Todd Lopez After a busy morning visiting troops in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth traveled back to the United States to MacDill Air Force Base in Florida for a meeting with U.S. Central Command leadership, where discussion centered on, among other things, operations planned for Iran. "Central Command will be busy tonight because President [Donald J.] Trump said we will be hitting Iran hard, and we will be," Hegseth said, addressing the press. "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." Earlier today, Trump said the U.S. has been trying to make a deal with Iran, and that while Iran has gone through the motions of an agreement — has yet to actually commit with both words and deeds. "I've been working with Iran for a number of months, and they should sign the deal," Trump said today at the White House. "It's a good deal. It doesn't give them the right to have a nuclear weapon. In fact, it totally prohibits them from ever having a nuclear weapon." On Monday, Iran struck and brought down a U.S. helicopter, an AH-64 Apache, near Oman. The crew from that aircraft has been safely returned. But the U.S. struck back yesterday and will again, the president said. "We hit them hard yesterday and we're gonna hit them again hard today," Trump said. "We'll see what happens with the deal. We were really close to a deal. But they keep tapping us along. They keep playing us for suckers." Hegseth said the War Department provides the president with the options he needs to get the deal he wants with Iran. "Adm. [Brad] Cooper and the team here at Centcom have done a phenomenal job from the beginning on Epic Fury, and through this blockade, ensuring that we have a chance to reach that end state — which is Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, which they say they don't want, and so since we're so close to that negotiated deal, if that's the case, they should step up and do it," Hegseth said. The secretary also said that "Project Freedom" continues, though news coverage of it has dwindled. Started in May, Project Freedom is meant to keep the Strait of Hormuz open for the safe passage of commercial vessels — and to protect those commercial ships from Iranian aggression. "Project Freedom — the idea of running ships through the Strait of Hormuz — it never stopped, it just went underground," Hegseth said. "And so, there's some things the public knows, and some things the public doesn't know, but ultimately, we've been protecting commercial shipping going through the Strait of Hormuz." Hegseth said as many as 100 million barrels of oil have safely transited the strait with U.S. protection. Two efforts are underway in the Arabian Gulf. One is that the U.S. is blocking the movement of vessels that are doing business with Iran. And the second is Project Freedom, where the U.S. is protecting the movement of commercial ships that are not doing business with Iran. "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. That's a powerful reality on the ground." As part of Operation Epic Fury, Hegseth said, U.S. Central Command has disabled the Iranian military and taken control of the Strait of Hormuz. Tonight, there will be strikes in Iran once again. The secretary recommended Iran sit down and make a deal with the U.S. "Iran has an opportunity to make a deal," he said. "That's the point. President Trump is a dealmaker — the best in the world. He's prepared to make that deal. Iran would be wise to take it. Otherwise, they would have to deal with the types of plans that I just had a chance to see inside Central Command." Earlier in the day at Centcom headquarters, the secretary met with Centcom personnel and told them how impressed he has been with their performance. "I just want to say on behalf of the president of the United States, on behalf of the American people, how proud we are of the work that Centcom has undertaken," Hegseth said. "What an incredible testament to your leadership, to your audacity, to your courage, to your toughness, to your adaptability — what the War Department can do, what the fighting men and women of our country can do, is on full display through Centcom to the rest of the world — it has been for over 100 days. "At every turn, from the admiral all the way down to every single troop in Centcom, you have been leading the way, charting the course for what American power looks like," Hegseth said. "And you should be incredibly proud of what you've accomplished."