Pete Hegseth has blasted European allies as “ungrateful” as the US defense secretary addressed ongoing war efforts in the Middle East.
The 45-year-old former TV personality told reporters at a press conference that the US had struck more than 7,000 targets, but they weren’t planning a “forever war.”
During his speech, he also branded European allies “ungrateful”, suggesting Iran posed a threat to their freedom and security.
Many experts have confirmed that Iran was not close to developing a nuclear weapon and did not pose a threat to the US before Trump launched his latest bloody campaign.
"A regime like that refusing to abandon its nuclear ambitions is not just a regional problem, it’s a direct threat to America, to freedom and to civilisation in the world, the Middle East, our ungrateful allies in Europe,” he told reporters.
"We're winning, decisively and on our terms," he continued, adding: "To date, we've struck over 7,000 targets across Iran and its military infrastructure. That is not incremental.”
At least 2,000 people have been killed across the Middle East after the US and Israel launched their war against Iran, which has quickly escalated into a regional conflict.
Iran has essentially halted oil shipments passing through the Strait of Hormuz, but despite Trump’s demands that European allies help secure the strait, the response has been less enthusiastic.
Earlier on Thursday, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Japan issued a joint statement on the Strait of Hormuz, condemning Iran’s attacks and calling for the vital waterway to be reopened.
"We condemn in the strongest terms recent attacks by Iran on unarmed commercial vessels in the Gulf, attacks on civilian infrastructure including oil and gas installations, and the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces,” the statement said.
Later, it adds: "We express our readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait”.
Trump faces mounting pushback from the international community, with many leading officials suggesting the 79-year-old American president doesn’t know what he’s doing and is acting unlawfully.
Sir Chris Bryant fired off a stinging attack earlier today after the US president said an angry Israel had “violently lashed out” and attacked Iran’s major gas field, a significant escalation in the conflict.
The attack on the huge South Pars complex on Wednesday drove gas and oil prices higher and prompted a threat by Iran to attack energy targets across the Gulf, while it fired missiles at Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
As the cost of oil spiralled higher, to around $113 (£85) a barrel, fears were growing of the economic fall-out on the UK and other countries.
Trump said he was unaware of the planned Israel attack on the oil field, a claim disputed by some diplomatic experts, and said Israel would not make further such airstrikes unless Iran retaliated.
But he warned Tehran that if it targeted oil fields in Qatar, the US would “massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field”.
Amid the chaos, trade minister Sir Chris slammed Trump over the war.
“If you are going to do anything you have got to have a plan,” he told Sky News.
“It seem basic to me...I don’t think there was a plan.”
Having spoken to trade ministers in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE, he added: “One of my counterparts in the Gulf said to me yesterday ‘I don’t know what they are doing..I simply don’t know what they are doing’.”
Pressed if he knew what the Trump administration was doing, Sir Chris responded: “No.
“Does he know? It seems very, very confusing.”
Asked if the US president went into the conflict with a plan, the minister added: “One of the reasons that Keir Starmer was quite rightly, and showed exceptional leadership at this point, was saying we are not going to send British troops into a situation where they are not protected legally because there is no good legal argument for the war.
“I’m glad we have not entered into this because, even Churchill said beware, beware, beware when you are going to go into a war you have got to be aware that it does not necessarily all go your way.”
On Thursday, Iran again attacked Qatar’s gas facilities, and its missiles also targeted the Saudi capital Riyadh.
QatarEnergy reported “sizeable fires” and extensive damage at several of its liquefied natural gas facilities hit by missile attacks early on Thursday.
The state oil giant had reported “extensive damage” after Iranian missiles hit the Ras Laffan Industrial City that processes about a fifth of global gas supply.
Saudi Arabia said it intercepted and destroyed four ballistic missiles launched toward Riyadh on Wednesday and an attempted drone attack on a gas facility in its east.
Trump said the US did not have advance knowledge of Israel’s attack on the South Pars gas field and that Qatar had not been involved.
The Wall Street Journal, however, reported that Trump had approved of Israel’s plan to attack Iran’s natural gas field.
“Israel, out of anger for what has taken place in the Middle East, has violently lashed out at a major facility known as South Pars Gas Field in Iran,” Trump posted on X on Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, Iran did not know this, or any of the pertinent facts pertaining to the South Pars attack, and unjustifiably and unfairly attacked a portion of Qatar’s LNG Gas facility.
“NO MORE ATTACKS WILL BE MADE BY ISRAEL pertaining to this extremely important and valuable South Pars Field unless Iran unwisely decides to attack a very innocent, in this case, Qatar.
“In which instance the United States of America, with or without the help or consent of Israel, will massively blow up the entirety of the South Pars Gas Field at an amount of strength and power that Iran has never seen or witnessed before.”
South Pars is the Iranian sector of the world’s largest natural gas deposit, which Iran shares with Qatar, a close US ally and host of the United States’ biggest military base in the Gulf.
With no sign of de-escalation, Trump is considering sending thousands more American troops to the Middle East, according to US sources, amid warnings that America could be dragged into a military quagmire.
Those troops could be used to restore the safe passage of oil tankers through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for a fifth of the world’s oil trade.
But Britain, Germany, France, Australia, Japan and other countries have refused to jump to the US president’s demand for them to send warships for a multi-national force to re-open the key strait.
