Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed Iran “begged” for the ceasefire after President Donald Trump’s threaten to wipe the nation’s civilization off the map unless a deal was made to end the conflict.
“No other president has shown the courage and resolve of this commander-in-chief,” Hegseth said during a Wednesday morning press conference. “President Trump forged this moment. Iran begged for this ceasefire, and we all know it.”
Hegseth claimed that Iran’s missile program had been “functionally destroyed” over the 38-day operation and that its navy “is at the bottom of the sea.” Iran’s air force has also been “wiped out,” he claimed, adding: “We own their skies.”
The U.S. carried out more than 800 strikes on Iran Tuesday night before the ceasefire took effect, Hegseth said, adding that the strikes “completely” destroyed Iran’s defense industrial base.
“They can no longer build rockets, build launchers or build UAVs. Their factories have been razed to the ground. Set back in historic fashion,” Hegseth said.
Had Iran declined Trump’s two-week ceasefire deal, the U.S. military’s next targets “would have been their power plants, their bridges and oil and energy infrastructure,” Hegseth said.
“Targets they could not defend, and could not realistically rebuild. It would’ve taken them decades and we were locked and loaded. They couldn’t defend against it,” he added.
Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, “understood that a deal was far better than the fate that awaited them,” Hegseth claimed. Khamenei is the son of Ali Khamenei, Iran’s previous supreme leader who was killed in the initial U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran that started in late February.
Hegseth also claimed that the new supreme leader is “wounded and disfigured.”
“This new regime is out of options and out of time, so they cut a deal,” Hegseth said. “They know this agreement means they will never, ever possess a nuclear weapon. Under the terms, any nuclear material they should not have will be removed.”
Ahead of Hegseth’s press conference, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that the U.S. would “work closely with Iran,” that there had been a “very productive” regime change and that there would be “no enrichment or Uranium.”
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Hegseth said that Iran will either give the U.S. its enriched uranium or the U.S. will “take it out.”
Hegseth also noted that the U.S. military “will be hanging around. Not going anywhere.”
The defense secretary, who has received backlash for pushing his conservative evangelical beliefs into the Pentagon, continued to use religious rhetoric during the press conference, at one point saying, “Our troops, our American warriors, deserve the credit for this day. But God deserves all the glory.”
He noted that “tens of thousands” of strikes were “carried out under the protection of divine providence. A massive effort with miraculous protection,” he said, adding, “ God is good.”
Hegseth also remained coy when asked whether the president was still encouraging civilians to rise up against the Iranian regime.
“I would love for the Iranian people to take advantage of this opportunity,” he said. “They have been oppressed by the previous regime, and they’ll have a new opportunity with this regime that remains to be seen.”
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