Amid what the Pentagon said was the fiercest bombardment of Iran since the start of the war, the Pentagon’s leaders said Tuesday that American and Israeli forces were “winning decisively” but declined to set a timetable for the end of the conflict, saying it was for President Trump to decide.
At a briefing for reporters on Tuesday morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the United States had struck more than 5,000 targets in 10 days, and said it would be “our most intense day of strikes.”
Iranians described a hellish night of bombs seeming to come from every direction without letup. “If they keep hitting Tehran like this for another 10 days, nothing will remain,” said one resident, Javad, who asked that his full name not be used for fear of retaliation. “They will hit all the infrastructure, and they have no hesitation about killing.”
In Lebanon, Israeli strikes against Hezbollah, the Iran-backed group, have displaced nearly 700,000 people, the United Nations said, and the government said 570 have been killed.
After conflicting statements by President Trump and his administration over the objectives and duration of the war, Mr. Hegseth set out what he said were clearly defined goals for the conflict, including preventing Iran from having nuclear weapons “forever.”
Asked about how long the war might last, the secretary said, “It’s not for me to posit whether it’s the beginning, the middle or the end,” leaving that to the president.
A day after Mr. Trump raised the possibility of the U.S. Navy escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial oil gateway from the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world, General Caine indicated that the plan was still nascent. “We are looking at a range of options there,” the general said.
Mr. Trump said Monday night on social media that if Iran moved to cut off the flow of oil through the strait, he would hit the country “TWENTY TIMES HARDER.” In fact, Iranian threats to shipping had already brought traffic through the strait to a virtual halt days earlier.
Ali Larijani, the head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, replied on Tuesday with a stark, personal threat, warning Mr. Trump in a social post to “take care of yourself, so that you are not eliminated.”
“Iran is not afraid of your pointless threats,” Mr. Larijani added. “Even those greater than you could not eliminate the Iranian nation.”
Mr. Hegseth showed a degree of displeasure with one aspect of Israel’s prosecution of the war, distancing himself from the Israeli strikes on oil depots in Iran over the weekend. “That wasn’t necessarily our objective,” the secretary said.
In the Gulf, officials said they remained alarmed about Iranian forces lashing out at their countries in retaliation with missiles and drones, doing further damage to the oil and gas industry that many countries across the globe rely on.
Amin Nasser, the chief executive of Saudi Aramco, the state-owned oil company, said Tuesday that the war was “the biggest crisis the region’s oil and gas industry has faced.” He warned of “catastrophic consequences for the world’s oil markets the longer the disruption goes on.”
Even as Mr. Hegseth and General Caine spoke to reporters at the Pentagon, Abu Dhabi’s government issued a statement saying that a drone had set fire to the facilities of its national oil company.
And in Qatar, where natural gas plants have cut back their production, a spokesman for the foreign ministry warned that continued attacks on energy facilities in the region and disruptions to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz could have “grave consequences for the international economy.”
Countries across Asia, which are among the worst impacted by the throttling of oil supplies from the Gulf, braced for possible fuel shortages and further price hikes.
In a bid to temper higher fuel prices, the Trump administration has started to loosen restrictions on Russian oil exports that were intended to help force an end to the war in Ukraine.
The move raised concerns in Western Europe, where Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany said solidarity with Ukraine in its war with Russia was paramount.
The U.S. Treasury has granted India a 30-day waiver to buy Russian oil already at sea without retaliation from Washington, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday that the administration was considering lifting more sanctions on Russian oil.
In their briefing, Mr. Hegseth and General Caine described the threat that Iranian forces pose to the region as considerably degraded.
“The last 24 hours have seen Iran fire the lowest number of missiles they’ve been capable of firing yet,” Mr. Hegseth said.
“The mullahs are desperate and scrambling,” he added.
In addition to preventing Iran from having nuclear weapons, Mr. Hegseth said the war’s objectives were to destroy the Iranian Navy and eradicate missile stockpiles, missile launchers, and prevent the country from being able to manufacture missiles.
Since the war began on Feb. 28, the stated American goals have shifted, with Mr. Trump initially calling for Iranians to rise up and overthrow their government.
“This is not endless nation building,” Mr. Hegseth said, drawing a contrast to the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
But the administration’s varying statements of the war’s aims and timing leave Mr. Trump wide latitude to claim victory how and when he sees fit.
Mr. Hegseth flashed the bravado he has become known for in his year as secretary, calling Iran’s theocratic regime “barbaric savages” and “terrorist cowards.”
A number of Iranian officials spoke out defiantly. Iran’s speaker of Parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, wrote in a social media post that Iran was not seeking a cease-fire and vowed to fight on. “We believe we must strike the aggressor in the mouth so that it learns a lesson and never again even thinks of aggressing against our dear Iran,” he wrote.
In Lebanon, where the Israeli military has stepped up its attacks in response to Hezbollah rocket fire, officials and aid groups warned of a growing humanitarian crisis as more people are driven from their homes.
The Israeli military said Tuesday that it completed another wave of strikes on targeted assets and storage facilities belonging to Al-Qard al-Hasan, a financial organization associated with Hezbollah. Israel has targeted about 30 assets belonging to the organization in the past week, the military said.
Reporting was contributed by Helene Cooper, Euan Ward, Emmett Lindner, Paul Sonne, Leily Nikounazar, Erika Solomon, Hwaida Saad and Aaron Boxerman.
Eric Schmitt is a national security correspondent for The Times. He has reported on U.S. military affairs and counterterrorism for more than three decades.
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