U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday at the Pentagon that “the next few days will be decisive” as the administration weighs whether diplomacy can slow a conflict in Iran that is widening across the region.
Hegseth said the war could intensify if Iran does not make a deal, simultaneously as the United States and President Donald Trump pushes allies to do more around the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has publicly insisted talks are progressing; however, Iranian officials have denied negotiations are ongoing.
Military.com reached out for comment to the White House, Department of Defense and U.S. Central Command.
Pentagon officials made clear Tuesday that Washington is keeping a diplomatic off-ramp open while preparing to sustain military pressure.
Hegseth said Trump was willing to make a deal and that talks were “ongoing and gaining strength,” also warning that the U.S. was prepared to continue the war if Tehran refused to comply.
“We have more and more options, and they have less,” Hegseth said, adding that Iran now has “almost nothing they can militarily do about it.”
That message fits with the broader U.S. campaign described in Pentagon briefings this month: strikes aimed at Iran’s offensive missiles, missile production network and naval forces, alongside a widening effort to hit logistics, manufacturing and research sites tied to those programs.
Earlier this month, Pentagon officials said U.S. forces had already hit more than 7,000 targets and damaged or sunk more than 120 Iranian vessels as the campaign expanded. By Tuesday, Air Force Gen. Dan Caine said the operation had struck “more than 11,000 targets” over 30 days.
Trump, Hegseth Push US Allies on Strait
The U.S. is pressing allies to take on a greater role in protecting shipping lanes as tensions sharpen around the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most important oil chokepoints.
“There are countries around the world who ought be prepared to step up on this critical waterway as well. It’s not just the United States Navy,” Hegseth said Tuesday.
He added that the U.S. had done “the lion’s share of the work” in reducing Iran’s threat and that the burden now should not fall on Washington alone. The U.S. has been accused of not conferring with its allies on the short- and long-term strategy affiliated with a military operation in Iran.
Pressure has been building. Trump on Monday threatened to destroy key parts of Iran’s energy infrastructure if Tehran did not reopen the strait and agree to a peace deal, then paused immediate strikes on power facilities while leaving the deadline in flux.
Any prolonged disruption would likely keep oil markets on edge. Brent crude ended the month at $119.01 a barrel after a record monthly gain of 64%, according to Reuters on Tuesday.
Alliance Cracks Widen as Iran War Enters New Phase
The Pentagon briefing also underscored growing friction with allies as the conflict enters a more dangerous stage.
Asked about NATO and allied support, Hegseth said requests for “simple access, basing and overflight” had met “questions or roadblocks or hesitations,” adding, “You don’t have much of an alliance if you have countries that are not willing to stand with you when you need them.”
Reuters reported that France refused overflight support for an Israeli resupply mission involving U.S. weapons; Italy denied landing access at Sigonella; and Spain said it had closed its airspace to U.S. planes involved in attacks on Iran.
Conflicting messages from Washington and Tehran are sharpening uncertainty at the exact moment Pentagon officials are warning the war could intensify.
War Accelerates as US Forces Move at ‘Wartime Speed’
Hegseth used some of his most vivid language of the briefing when describing a recent trip to U.S. forces in the region.
“I witnessed urgency,” he said, recounting how cargo was being unloaded from a C-17 within 30 seconds of it stopping on the ground. He said troops repeatedly told him they wanted “everything faster, higher tempo, wartime speed.”
Caine added more hard detail from the battlefield.
“The joint force continues to destroy Iran’s ballistic missile and [unmanned aerial system capabilities],” Caine said, describing an around-the-clock campaign across air, land, sea, space and cyberspace. He said U.S. forces were still targeting logistics and supply chains feeding those programs and had continued delivering precision strikes against manufacturing nodes, storage sites and research facilities deep inside Iran.
Caine did not provide an updated U.S. casualty total during the briefing. Both Hegseth and Caine refrained from updating totals on Tuesday. Prior updates put the total at 13 dead and more than 300 wounded since the war began.
