Daily Caller White House correspondent Reagan Reese asked Secretary of War Pete Hegseth Wednesday whether the U.S. military was truly prepared to “wipe out” Iran’s civilization.
President Donald Trump warned that a “whole civilization will die” if Iran did not make a deal to end the conflict and reopen the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday evening. Hegseth told Reese that the military had the capability to successfully target Iran’s power plants, infrastructure and bridges.
“Yesterday, in the president’s Truth Social, he threatened to wipe out a civilization. That statement elicited a huge response in America. If Iran did not come to the table and make a deal yesterday by the deadline, was the president really prepared to wipe out Iran entirely?” Reese asked.
“Like I said, we had a target set, locked and loaded. Infrastructure, bridges, power plants,” Hegseth said. “Remember, this is a terror regime, a military regime, use all these things for dual use to fund their military, to fund their terror campus. We had a lot of legitimate targets. They knew exactly the scope of what we were capable of.”
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Hegseth said the Iranians came to the table because they knew the U.S. was a true threat.
“We hit some military targets on Kharg, which is a bit of a signal,” Hegseth continued. “They can’t defend it, and so Iran ultimately understood their ability, their future to produce, to generate power, to fuel their terrorist regime was in our hands, was in President Trump’s hands. That’s why they came to the table. He ultimately said, ‘We can take it all from you. Your ability to export energy will be taken away and the United States Military has the ability to strike those things with impunity.’ That type of threat is what brought them to the place where they effectively say, ‘OK, we want to cut this deal.’”
Iran agreed to a two-week conditional ceasefire before the deadline, which includes temporarily reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The interruption of trade through the critical oil export waterway saw U.S. gas price surge to an average of over $4.10 per gallon.
The deal caused Trump to postpone the planned attack on Iran. He previously warned on Easter Sunday that Iranians will be “living in Hell” if they did not reopen the waterway.
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