U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
Iran will have no choice but to surrender, says Pete Hegseth
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- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warns “there will be more casualties.”
- Hegseth says losses strengthen U.S. resolve to finish the fight.
The ongoing U.S. military operation against Iran has already claimed seven American lives, and more casualties are expected, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Sunday.
“There will be more casualties, and no one is — I mean, especially our generation knows what it’s like to see Americans come home in caskets, it’s — but that doesn’t weaken us one bit, it stiffens our spine and our resolve to say this is a fight we will finish,” Hegseth said in an interview on CBS News’s 60 Minutes.
Last week, the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes against Iranian targets following months of heightened tension between Tehran and Washington, which escalated after President Trump’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities last year. Iran retaliated with attacks on Israel and Gulf nations, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
On Sunday, U.S. Central Command (Centcom) confirmed the seventh U.S. service member had died from injuries sustained during Iran’s initial attacks across the Middle East on March 1. Centcom said the service member was seriously wounded at the scene of an attack in Saudi Arabia targeting American troops.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told NBC’s Meet the Press that Iran could defend itself if the U.S. launches a ground incursion. “For the time being we are capable enough. We have very brave soldiers, who are waiting for any enemy who enters into our soil to fight with them, and to kill them and destroy them,” he said.
President Trump and his administration have not ruled out sending U.S. ground forces into Iran. “It would have to be for a very good reason. And I would say if we ever did that, they would be so decimated that they wouldn’t be able to fight at the ground level,” Trump told reporters on Saturday.
The latest developments highlight the intensifying conflict between the U.S. and Iran, with both sides signaling readiness for further escalation while regional tensions continue to mount.
