- Says Iran’s nuclear programme now in ruins
US Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth has said the strikes on Iranian nuclear sites were an “incredible and overwhelming” success that “devastated” the country’s nuclear program.
Addressing a press conference at The Pentagon, Hegseth said the “precision strikes” were “focused, powerful and clear”.
He said the operation solely targeted Iranian nuclear sites, rather than Iranian troops or civilians.
According to him; “Last night on President Trump’s orders, US central command conducted a precision strike in the middle of the night against three nuclear facilities in Iran … in order to destroy or severely degrade Iran’s nuclear program.
“It was an incredible and overwhelming success. The order we received from our commander in chief was focused, it was powerful, and it was clear. We devastated the Iranian nuclear program.”
While Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force, General Dan Caine were speaking at the Pentagon press briefing, US Vice President JD Vance was talking to broadcaster NBC.
Vance said the United States (US) wants to pursue a diplomatic process in Iran, adding that said the country had successfully set back Iran’s nuclear weapons program.
Hinting that President Donald Trump now hopes to pursue a diplomatic solution, Vance said on NBC’s Meet the Press with Kristen Welker, “We do not want to protract this or build this out any more than it’s already been built out. We want to end their nuclear program.”
“We want to talk to the Iranians about a long-term settlement here,” the Vice President said, adding that he did not believe the conflict with Iran would become a protracted war.
Maintaining that the US had no interest in sending further US troops to the Middle East, he said the US did not want to see regime change in Iran.
On his part, Gen Caine, who is the US’ most senior military official, praised the levels of secrecy and “operational security” over the attack.
Caine said he was proud of the “discipline” of those involved in planning Operation Midnight Hammer, and said details had been kept to a small group of people.
It comes nearly three months after claims that Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth, who Caine spoke alongside at the Pentagon on Sunday morning in the US, leaked details of a bombing operation on Yemen in group chats.
Caine said: “I am particularly proud of our discipline related to operational security, something that was of great to concern to the president, the secretary, Gen Kurilla and me, and we will continue to focus on this.”
He had said the decoy efforts were known “only to an extremely small numbers of planners and key leaders in Washington and in Tampa”.
