Hegseth says most intense U.S. strikes coming

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday: "Today will once again be our most intense day of attacks inside Iran." "Iran is alone and losing badly on day 10 of Operation Epic Fury," Hegseth said at a Pentagon news conference with Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Hegseth said that in the past 24 hours, the United States had seen "Iran fire the smallest number of missiles that they have been able to fire so far," even as he condemned Iran for attacking its Gulf neighbors, some of which it had been allied with in the past, without provocation from those nations. He vowed that the United States would send "the largest number of fighters, the largest number of bombers and the largest number of strikes" against Iran on Tuesday to press for three military objectives. Those goals, he said, are to destroy Iran's missile stockpile and its missile manufacturing capacity; "destroy their Navy"; and "permanently deny Iran nuclear weapons forever." "We are crushing the enemy with an overwhelming display of technical skill and military force," he said. "We will not yield until the enemy is completely and decisively defeated." But he also said the Trump administration would not bog down on so-called nation-building efforts, like those of the Bush and Obama administrations in Iraq and Afghanistan during the wars there. Hegseth's aggressive and confident comments echoed those President Donald Trump made a day earlier to reporters at his Miami-area golf club. Trump had predicted that the war would end "very soon," because the destruction of Iranian military assets was happening much faster than he expected when the US and Israeli attacks began on February 28. He also warned Iran's ruling regime against withholding oil from world markets after the war. "If Iran does anything to stop the flow of oil within the Strait of Hormuz, the United States of America will hit it TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have hit it so far," Trump wrote later Monday night in a Truth Social post. Hegseth, who had initially predicted the war could last between three and eight weeks, told reporters Tuesday that Trump now "can control the accelerator" of the pace of the war, adding that the president is "the one who decides...when we are achieving particular objectives." "So it's not my place to say whether it's the beginning, the middle or the end," Hegseth said. "That is yours and you will continue to communicate it." As Hegseth spoke, authorities in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, confirmed that a drone attack by Iran had caused a fire at the oil refinery at the Ruwais Industrial Complex. No injuries were immediately reported. Trump told Fox News in an interview Monday night that he is "not happy" that Iran chose Mojtaba Khamenei as its new supreme leader, to succeed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the start of the war. "I don't think he can live in peace," Trump said of Mojtaba Khamenei. Trump also told Fox that "it's possible" he would be willing to talk to Iran's leaders. "I've heard they really want to talk," he said. At his press conference Tuesday, Hegseth said of Khamenei: "It would be wise to pay attention to our president and not seek nuclear weapons."