MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Florida, June 10 (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said U.S. forces would carry out orders from President Donald Trump and hit Iran hard on Wednesday by bombing “key facilities.”
Speaking to reporters after being briefed by commanders at the U.S. Central Command headquarters in Florida, Hegseth said Iran had been given a chance to make a deal but had not taken it.
“We will hit them hard on our terms on the targets that improve the environment for us to operate in and undermine the capabilities that Iran wants to have,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth spoke after Trump said that the United States would strike Iran again if no peace deal is secured, threatening further escalation following one of the most significant exchanges of hostilities in two months.
“As President Trump said, they’ve been tap, tap, tapping,” Hegseth said, referring to Iran.
“You can see when someone’s trying to tap, tap, tap on a deal, instead they’re going to have tap, tap, tap bombs dropping on key facilities in Iran from the United States of America.”
He accused Iran of “choosing to play games” and added: “If we need to negotiate with bombs, we’ll negotiate with bombs, and we’re very good at it.”
(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Daphne Psaledakis and David Brunnstrom, Writing by Christian Martinez and David Brunnstrom; editing by Michelle Nichols, Don Durfee and Deepa Babington)
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