- Pentagon chief warns Iran is miscalculating US ability to sustain war.
- Says US campaign targets Iranian missiles, missile production and navy.
- Says Iran makes ‘bad calculation’ and believes US can’t sustain war.
TAMPA: TAMPA: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Thursday that Iran was making a serious miscalculation if it believed the US could not sustain the ongoing war, stressing that Washington had the resources and resolve to continue the military campaign as long as necessary.
The Pentagon said earlier this week that the military campaign, known as Operation Epic Fury, is focused on destroying Iran’s offensive missiles, missile production and navy while preventing Tehran from having a nuclear weapon.
“There is no expansion in our goals. We know exactly what we are trying to achieve,” Hegseth said.
He added that Trump “had a heck of an influence on who runs Iran given the operation going on.”
In a telephone interview with Reuters on Thursday, Trump said the United States will have to help choose the next person to lead the country.
The US and Israeli military campaign that started on Saturday has hit targets across the country and triggered Iranian retaliatory strikes in the region as Tehran tries to impose a heavy cost on the US, Israel and their allies.
Iran has attacked countries including Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Firefighters in Bahrain put out a fire at a refinery after a missile attack.
Azerbaijan became the latest country to be drawn in as it accused Iran of firing drones at its territory and ordered its southern airspace closed for 12 hours.
Hegseth said that by striking countries in the region, Iran would only bring them closer to the United States.
“It actually strengthens the unity of the resistance to focus exactly where we need to,” Hegseth said.
Next phase of the operation
The US has struck more than 2,000 targets in Iran, including Iranian warships.
Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of US Central Command, said US forces had destroyed 30 Iranian warships, including an Iranian drone ship, earlier Thursday.
Cooper said the US hit Iran’s ability to rebuild.
“As we move into the next phase of this operation, we will systematically dismantle Iran’s missile production capability for the future, and that is absolutely underway,” Cooper said, adding that it would take some time.
The US military has identified the six US Army Reserve soldiers who were killed when a drone crashed into a US military facility in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait.
Trump and other senior officials have warned that the Iran conflict will result in more US military deaths.
Hegseth said during the news conference that Iran was making a mistake if it thought the United States could not sustain the ongoing war, adding that Washington had just begun to fight.
“Iran is hoping that we can’t sustain this, which is a really bad miscalculation,” Hegseth said. “We set the timeline.”
