Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday accused Iran of piracy and terrorism in the Strait of Hormuz and warned that the United States stood ready to resume combat operations “with more power than ever before” if the current ceasefire collapses.
Speaking at a Pentagon press briefing, Hegseth said the US was “maximally postured to restart combat operations,” while Iran was unable to reconstitute its own military. The two-week ceasefire announced by President Donald Trump is set to expire April 22.
“This is not a fair fight,” Hegseth said, adding that while Iran was “digging out of bombed-out and devastated facilities, we are only getting stronger.”
Addressing Iran’s leadership directly, he said, “We are reloading with more power than ever before, and better intelligence than ever before, as you expose yourself with your movement to our watchful eye.”
The remarks come as efforts were underway to resume direct US-Iran talks and after Trump indicated the war may be nearing its end. Mediator Pakistan said Thursday “there are no dates yet” for renewed negotiations, and large gaps reportedly remain over Iran’s nuclear program.
Hegseth rejected Iran’s demand for continued control of the Strait of Hormuz, a key pathway for the global oil supply, and dismissed Tehran’s blockade threats as not amounting to control of the waterway.
“You can’t control anything,” he said. “To be clear, threatening to shoot missiles and drones at ships, commercial ships that are lawfully transiting international waters, that is not control. That’s piracy. That’s terrorism. The United States Navy controls the traffic going in and out of the strait because we have real assets and real capabilities, and we’re doing this blockade.”
Hegseth said “less than 10% of America’s naval power” had been deployed to enforce the US blockade announced earlier this week on vessels belonging to or paying tolls to Iran.”The math is clear. We’re using 10% of the world’s most powerful navy, and you have 0% of your Navy,” he said.
The US Navy currently has 16 warships in the Middle East, including 11 destroyers, three amphibious assault ships, an aircraft carrier, and a littoral combat ship, out of a battle force of roughly 300 total warships. Iran’s conventional navy has been heavily damaged since the war began on February 28, though the fleet of small boats and attack craft used by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to patrol the strait remains largely intact, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the US naval effort as a “blockade of Iran’s ports and coastlines” with enforcement “inside Iran’s territorial seas and in international waters.” He said US forces would “actively pursue any Iranian-flagged vessel or any vessel attempting to provide material support to Iran” anywhere in the world.
Caine issued a warning to any vessel attempting to circumvent the blockade: “Turn around or prepare to be boarded. We will use force.”
No ships have had to be boarded so far, he said, and 13 vessels have turned around.The blockade applies to all ships heading into or out of Iranian ports, regardless of nationality, and includes “dark fleet vessels carrying Iranian oil” that evade international regulations, sanctions or insurance requirements, Caine said.
More than 10,000 sailors, Marines and airmen are enforcing the operation, which Caine likened to “driving a sports car through a supermarket parking lot on a pay day weekend.”
Hegseth added that the US would ensure “Iran never has a nuclear weapon” and urged Tehran to choose negotiations and “a prosperous future, a golden bridge.”
Iran, whose leaders are sworn to Israel’s destruction, denies seeking nuclear weapons but has obstructed international inspectors and enriched uranium to levels with no peaceful application, calling it a sovereign right.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
