US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Monday that the attacks on Iran “are not a war of regime change, but surely the regime has changed and the world is better for it.”
Hegseth indicated that the ‘Epic Fury’ operation, which began on Saturday and resulted in the death of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is the “most lethal, most complex and most precise in history,” according to a quote from EFE.
Furthermore, he insisted that the attacks are carried out “precisely, overwhelmingly,” and added that as the conflict progresses, US capabilities “get stronger and Iran’s get weaker.”
“Destroy Iranian offensive missiles, destroy Iranian missile production, destroy their navy and other security infrastructure, and they will never have nuclear weapons.”@SecWar Pete Hegseth outlines Operation Epic Fury at the Pentagon. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/lxPNhoTgTU
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 2, 2026
“We set the terms of this war from beginning to end. Our ambitions are not utopian. They are realistic,” warned Hegseth, who reiterated that Trump and his Cabinet “went out of their way” to achieve a diplomatic solution, but that Tehran was dragging its feet to “buy time to recharge its missile arsenals.”
“It’s not Iraq,” but “it will take time”
“This is not Iraq. This is not endless. (…) This is the complete opposite. This operation is a clear, devastating and decisive mission: destroy the missile threat, destroy the Navy, no nuclear weapons,” Hegseth said.
But, at the same press conference, the head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Caine, assured that military operations against Iran “will take some time” to achieve the objectives, will require “painful work” and expect new casualties among its troops.
In fact, the United States confirmed this Monday that a fourth soldier died from wounds received during the “initial attacks” of the operation, launched to end the Iranian regime, setting the Middle East on fire and putting the world on edge.
Shortly before, Iran’s national security chief, Ali Larijani, had warned that his country has “prepared for a long war.”
Some 18 service members were seriously injured during the US war against Iran, according to the US Central Command spokesman, quoted by cnn.
The “big wave” is yet to come.
Donald Trump declared to cnn in a nine-minute phone interview Monday that U.S. forces are “destroying” Iran, but that the “big wave” is yet to come.
“We are destroying them,” Trump declared to Jake Tapper of cnn. “I think it’s going very well. It’s very powerful. We have the best armed forces in the world and we are using them,” he added.
In addition to Khamenei, his wife, 79 years old, and one of his granddaughters, 14 months old, also died due to the US attacks, as confirmed this Monday by Iranian media and cited this morning by the Spanish agency.
