'You were the first to speak up': Trump suggests unpopular Iran war was Pete Hegseth’s idea
The US President appeared to throw his Secretary of War under the bus amid growing opposition to the lasting Middle East conflict.
Donald Trump has appeared to shift the blame for his war against Iran onto his defence chief Pete Hegseth amid growing anger at the US' ongoing military operation.
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Speaking at a conference in Tennessee, the US President appeared to throw the Secretary of War under the bus as pressure mounts at home and abroad for the American leader to make peace with Tehran.
Mr Trump said: “I called a lot of our great people... and I said, ‘Let's talk. We got a problem in the Middle East. We have a country known as Iran that, for 47 years, has been just a purveyor of terror, and they're close to a nuclear weapon.'''
Turning to Mr Hegseth, he added: “And Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up. And you said, “Let’s do it, because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon."'
Mr Hegseth made an awkward smile as his boss went on discussing negotiations with Iran, which he claimed Tehran had “started last night”.
“I think they’re very good. They want peace… they’ve agreed they will not have a nuclear weapon, you know etc., etc., but we’ll see. You have to get it done. But I would say there’s a very good chance,” Mr Trump added.
Read more: Iran fires missiles at Israel hours after Trump hails 'constructive' talks
Mr Hegseth has held press briefings with reporters at the Pentagon and shared US military objectives such as taking out Iran’s ballistic missile programme, drone production and naval capabilities. He has also repeatedly hit out at the media for negative coverage of the war.
Speaking to media on Thursday, Mr Hegseth refused to clarify when the US would wind down its military operations in Iran, telling reporters “we wouldn’t want to set a definitive timeframe”.
But he claimed the US is “very much on track”, adding that Mr Trump will make the final call on how it concludes.
It comes as a wave of missiles was fired at Israel on Monday, a day after Mr Trump declared peace talks with Tehran had been "good and constructive".
Air raid sirens and blasts from interceptions could be heard across Tel Aviv, with six people said to have been lightly injured in the strikes.
Iran also hit the Eilat area in southern Israel, as well as the cities of Dimona and Yeruham.
Mr Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has now travelled to Pakistan for peace talks with Iran after the US President postponed his threatened strikes on Tehran's power plants if it did not reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Mr Witkoff, a key figure in the Trump administration, has offered to host in-person talks after the American leader told Iran's rulers that they had "one more chance" to make a deal to end the war.
However, there is no sign of any meaningful Iranian figure joining Mr Witkoff in Pakistan and the Strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil usually flows, is still in effect closed by Iran.
Mr Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform on Monday that the US and Iran had held 'very good and productive' conversations about a "complete and total resolution of hostilities in the Middle East".
The US president had threatened strikes on Tehran's power plants unless it reopened Hormuz, but extended a 48-hour deadline he imposed on Saturday to reassure global markets.Iran responded to Mr Trump's threats on Sunday by saying if its plants were targeted then energy infrastructure "across the entire region" would be "irreversibly destroyed".
The regime later revealed the eight Persian Gulf energy sites it will strike, via Iran's Fars News Agency.
Brent crude swiftly fell 10% to stand at just over $101 a barrel following the post on Trump's Truth Social platform, having earlier hit around $114 a barrel.
In a typo-ridden post on Truth Social, the US president said a pause on Iran’s energy sites will last for five days but added that it depends on "the success of the ongoing meetings and discussions".
But Trump's claims of negotiations have been directly contradicted by officials from within Iran.The speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, called the Trump administration's claims of talks "fake news".
In a message posted on Telegram by Fars News Agency, sources further appeared to reject Donald Trump's claims of 'major points of agreement' between the US and Iran.
The message reads: "Informed officials in Iran announced that there were no negotiations and emphasized that until the US completely withdrew, evacuated its bases in the region, paid compensation, and received valid guarantees not to repeat the aggression, neither would the war end nor would the Strait of Hormuz be reopened.
"According to this report, even after the possible end of the war, the situation in the Strait of Hormuz will not return to the pre-war situation."
The conflicting reports have confused many, with President Trump going as far as to say the US would “keep bombing its little heart out” if a peace agreement isn’t reached.