In the Trump administration’s first news conference since US-Israeli attacks on Iran began early Saturday, Hegseth said the operation had a “clear, devastating and decisive mission” to eliminate the threat of Iranian ballistic missiles, destroy the country’s navy and ensure “that there are no nuclear weapons.”
Hegseth appeared to celebrate the notion of waging war while ignoring the United States’ own rules of engagement: directives on how and when the U.S. military can use force that conform to the Geneva Conventions.
“No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy-building exercise, no politically correct wars. We fight to win and we waste no time or lives,” Hegseth said with characteristic bravado.
Hegseth spoke alongside the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Dan Caine. The two men monitored the start of the attacks with US President Donald Trump at his resort in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, rather than at the White House, Reuters reported.
In laying out the case for the strikes, Hegseth did not cite any imminent nuclear threat from Iran, and reiterated that the U.S. and Israeli strikes last June “destroyed its nuclear program to rubble.”
Instead, Hegseth pointed to threats from other weapons, such as ballistic missiles and drones, to justify the operation.
“Iran was building powerful missiles and drones to create a conventional shield for its nuclear blackmail ambitions,” he said.
“Our bases, our people, our allies, everyone in their crosshairs. Iran had a conventional weapon on our heads while they were trying to lie their way to a nuclear bomb,” Hegseth added.
He said that during last week’s negotiations with U.S. officials ahead of the attack, Iranian officials were “deadlocked” despite having “every chance of reaching a peaceful and sensible agreement.”
Wider war
The assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, cast doubt on the future of the Islamic Republic and plunged the region into broader instability.
Trump administration officials have offered no exit plan for how the conflict would end or what a post-strike Iran would look like, even as they denied that Iran’s leadership had been incapacitated.
“This is not a so-called war of regime change, but the regime did change and the world is better off for it,” Hegseth said.
The briefing came as the conflict escalated into a broader war in the region. Iran and its allied armed groups have launched missiles against Israel, Arab states and US military targets in the Middle East.
Four American soldiers have been killed in combat, and Trump, Hegseth and Caine predict more American casualties.
Top defense leaders did not offer details about the circumstances of the soldiers’ deaths.
“We mourn with you and we will never forget you,” Caine said of the slain troops and their families.
The latest sign of the growing unrest came when, the U.S. military said, U.S. ally Kuwait “mistakenly shot down” three U.S. fighter jets during a combat mission while Iranian planes, ballistic missiles and drones were attacking. US Central Command said all six pilots were safely ejected from the US F-15E Strike Eagles and were in stable condition.
Asked if there are now troops on the ground in Iran, Hegseth said: “No, but we’re not going to get into the exercise of what we will or won’t do.”
He said it was “nonsense” to expect U.S. officials to publicly say “this is exactly as far as we will go.”
He also justified the operation by describing Iran’s government as the one that started the conflict from its beginning, stating that for 47 years it has “waged a savage and unilateral war against the United States.”
Trump administration officials told congressional staff that U.S. intelligence did not suggest Iran was preparing to launch a preemptive strike against the United States, three people familiar with the briefings said about Sunday’s private briefing.
Trump has said the goal of the mission was to eliminate “imminent threats from the Iranian regime.” Senior Trump administration officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters Saturday that there were indicators that the Iranians could launch a preemptive strike.
As with the attack that dropped huge bunker-buster bombs on Iranian nuclear facilities last year, Caine said the military also used B-2 stealth bombers in the new operation and they made a 37-hour round trip.
He said the penetrating bombs were dropped on Iranian underground facilities, but did not specify that they were nuclear facilities. Nuclear facilities were also not among the types of targets on a list published by the US Central Command.
Central Command said over the weekend that the military had struck more than 1,000 targets. Authorities have said Israel and the United States have bombed Iranian missile sites and targeted its navy, claiming to have destroyed its headquarters and multiple warships.
Orders given en route
Caine on Monday referenced the use of cyber technologies in the attacks, which he said had “effectively disrupted communications and sensor networks” that had left “the adversary without the ability to coordinate or respond effectively.”
Without giving details, Caine said the military “provided synchronized and layered effects designed to disrupt, degrade, deny and destroy Iran’s ability to conduct sustained combat operations on the U.S. side.”
Laying out a timeline, Caine said Trump gave the order to carry out the attacks at 3:38 p.m. EST on Friday.
That meant the president gave the green light to the offensive while aboard Air Force One bound for Texas with Republican Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, as well as actor Dennis Quaid.
In an interview Sunday with The New York Times, Trump said the operation could last “four to five weeks.”
Hegseth dismissed questions about the timeline Monday, saying, “President Trump has all the freedom in the world to talk about how long it may or may not take. Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks. He could go forward. He could go back.”
Hegseth and Caine spoke hours before Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed congressional leaders. Rubio, Hegseth, Caine and CIA Director John Ratcliffe will also brief all members of Congress on Tuesday.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
