Secretary Pete Hegseth Asked Point Blank: 'Are You Prepared For A Protracted War' Following US Strike On Iran?

Forbes Breaking News

During a press briefing at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was asked about the possibility of a longer-term war with Iran following President Trump's decision to strike Iranian nuclear facilities.

Transcript

00:00are being sent to the Iranians right now and is there any possibility of diplomacy now or in the

00:05coming days? I can only confirm that there are both public and private messages being directly

00:12delivered to the Iranians in multiple channels, giving them every opportunity to come to the

00:17table. They understand precisely what the American position is, precisely what steps they can take

00:24to allow for peace, and we hope they do so. Yes. The president may not want an open-ended

00:32conflict. The Iranians may disagree. Are you prepared for a protracted war? Well, anything can

00:40happen in conflict. We acknowledge that. But the scope of this was intentionally limited.

00:44That's the message that we're sending, with the capabilities of the American military nearly

00:49unlimited. So Iran, in that sense, has a choice. But we've made it very clear to them, this is

00:56nuclear sites. This is nuclear capabilities. This is the line that the president set, and we set that

01:02back. Now is the time to come forward for peace. But we, I think one of the takeaways from this as

01:07well is the unprecedented level of ongoing cooperation. I can't speak highly enough of

01:12the chairman and his staff, and General Carrilla in CENTCOM, what they've done to look around the

01:19corner, to preposition, to understand how an operation like this comes together. The scope and

01:25scale of what occurred last night would take the breath away of almost any American if you had an

01:30opportunity to watch it in real time. And I think Tehran is certainly calculating the reality that

01:36planes flew from the middle of America and Missouri overnight, completely undetected over three of the

01:42most highly sensitive sites. And we were able to destroy nuclear capabilities. And our boys in

01:49those bombers are on their way home right now. We believe that'll have a clear psychological impact

01:54on how they view the future. And we certainly hope they take the path of negotiated peace. But I could

01:59not be more proud of how this building operated, of the precision, the sensitivity, and the professionalism

02:07of the troops involved in this.

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