War Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. military was in a position to restart operations against Iran “if we need to,” shortly after President Donald Trump signed the memorandum of understanding in Versailles, France.
Speaking to reporters on the tarmac before departing from Brussels, Belgium, Hegseth indicated that, though the MOU sought to end the war with Iran, the U.S. was also prepared to launch renewed strikes if Tehran was not seen as having fulfilled its commitments under the deal.
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“We will be prepared to recommence if, underneath the timeline of these talks, Iran does not do what it says it’s going to do, which is give up nuclear weapons, give up nuclear ambitions, give away their nuclear material, close nuclear facilities. Then the War Department is here and prepared to restart if we need to. We prefer not to, but we are prepared,” he said.
Hegseth also indicated that the department would soon review its forces in the Middle East and adjust its presence accordingly. He spoke in the future tense, implying that U.S. forces wouldn’t be withdrawn immediately.
“When it comes to our alignment, or posture, in the region, we’ll review what capabilities we need. When the blockade opens fully, we’ll step back and allow commerce to flow, but if Iran doesn’t comply, then we’re more than able to reimpose an ironclad blockade,” he said.
“We’ve had bases in that region for a long time. A lot of that will stay just as it is, and we’ll look at how many troops we need in the area and calibrate accordingly,” Hegseth added.
When questioned, he also spoke in defense of the MOU itself, a deal that has become highly controversial. Hegseth argued that a key difference between the new deal and former President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal was that Trump’s deal came after an expression of U.S. strength.
“One key difference you’ve got to point out between this agreement and others is this was born of strength, of American action,” he said, deriding Obama’s nuclear deal as having come from “a bunch of begging and talking.”
“This agreement came after months of bombing and a blockade that was impenetrable. Iran was put in a position where they had to come to the table,” Hegseth said.
Paragraph nine of the 14-point MOU said that the U.S. will remain the “status quo” with its forces in the region, refraining from deploying any additional forces.
