By Phil Stewart and Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. military is ready to carry out any decision that President Donald Trump may make on Iran, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Wednesday, suggesting that the U.S. direction could become more clear in the coming days.
Testifying before a Senate committee, Hegseth was very cautious in his public testimony, declining to say whether the Pentagon had prepared strike options against Iran.
But when pressed by lawmakers, he acknowledged being ready to carry out any orders on Iran and cautioned that Tehran should have heeded Trump’s calls for it to make a deal on its nuclear program prior to the start of Israel’s strikes on Friday.
“They should have made a deal, President Trump’s word means something. The world understands that. And at the Defense Department, our job is to stand ready and prepared with options and that’s precisely what we’re doing,” Hegseth told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Hegseth was then asked whether the Trump administration was moving to re-establish deterrence, a term used to describe actions meant to constrain an adversary from taking hostile action.
He responded: “I think we already have in many ways in this environment re-established deterrence. The question is, in the coming days, exactly what direction that goes.”
Trump on Wednesday declined to answer reporters’ questions on whether the U.S. was planning to strike Iran or its nuclear facilities, and said the Iranians had reached out but he feels “it’s very late to be talking.”
“There’s a big difference between now and a week ago,” Trump told reporters outside the White House. “Nobody knows what I’m going to do.”
Trump said that Iran had proposed to come for talks at the White House. He did not provide details. He described Iran as totally defenseless, with no air defense whatsoever, as Israel’s strikes entered a sixth day.
A source familiar with internal discussions said Trump and his team were considering options that included joining Israel in strikes against Iranian nuclear sites.
Still, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has rejected Trump’s demand for unconditional surrender.
Iranians jammed the highways out of the capital Tehran, fleeing from intensified Israeli airstrikes.
In the latest bombing, Israel said its air force destroyed the headquarters of Iran’s internal security service.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart and Patricia Zengerle in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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