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| ▲ U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon near Washington on April 8, 2026. (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon near Washington on April 8, 2026. (Yonhap) |
(LEAD) Pentagon chief-Iran war
(LEAD) Hegseth claims 'decisive victory' in Iran war, says U.S. reserves option to take Tehran's uranium
(ATTN: UPDATES with more info in paras 10, 13-18; ADDS photo)
By Song Sang-ho
WASHINGTON, April 8 (Yonhap) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed Wednesday that the United States has achieved a "decisive" and "overwhelming" victory in the war with Iran, adding that the Islamic Republic will hand over its enriched uranium, or the U.S. will "take it."
Hegseth made the remarks during a press briefing at the Pentagon alongside Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to a two-week ceasefire with Iran on the condition that Tehran reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial oil shipping route.
"Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield -- a capital V military victory," he said. "By any measure, Epic Fury decimated Iran's military and rendered it combat-ineffective for years to come."
The Pentagon chief was referring to the U.S. military operation that was launched on Feb. 28, aiming to destroy Iran's missile capabilities, defense industrial base, navy and air forces, and deny the regime any pathway to develop nuclear weapons.
On Iran's stockpiles of enriched uranium, he said Iran will hand them over to the U.S, indicating that if Iran refuses to do so, the U.S. would act to take them.
"Right now, it's buried. We are watching it. We know exactly what they have, and they know that," he said of the uranium stockpiles. "They will give it to us voluntarily. We'll get it. We will take it. We will take it out."
He hinted that the U.S. could consider a military option to secure the uranium storage.
"If we have to do something else ourselves like we did (in Operation) Midnight Hammer or something like that, we reserve that opportunity," he said, referring to last year's U.S. military operation to strike nuclear facilities in Iran.
"But what's clear, what the new Iranian regime knows is they'll never have a nuclear weapon."
In a Truth Social post earlier in the day, Trump stressed that there will be "no enrichment of uranium" in Iran, noting that in cooperation with Tehran, the U.S. will "dig up and remove" all of the "deeply buried nuclear dust."
The secretary pointed out that the U.S. military will be "hanging around" to ensure that Iran complies with the ceasefire, comes to the negotiating table and ultimately makes a peace deal with the U.S. He also stressed that it will "stay put," and remain "ready and vigilant."
"Our troops are prepared to defend, prepared to go on offense, prepared to restart at a moment's notice whatever target package would be needed in order to ensure that Iran complies as far as the strait," he said. "You saw the initial agreement that was struck, which is Iran let ships go through."
Arguing that Iran "begged for" the ceasefire, Hegseth said that "we have a chance at real peace and a real deal."
"The War Department for now has done its part," he said. "We stand ready in the background to ensure (that) Iran upholds every reasonable term."
Caine also highlighted the U.S. military's combat readiness, saying that a ceasefire is a "pause."
"The joint force remains ready if ordered or called upon to resume combat operations with the same speed and precision as we've demonstrated over the last 38 days," he said. "We hope that that is not the case."
To recapitulate the military operation against Iran, Caine said that since the war started in late February, the U.S. has struck more than 13,000 targets, destroyed 80 percent of Iran's air defense systems, more than 2,000 command and control nodes, and has sunk over 90 percent of Iran's regular Navy fleet, including all of its major surface combatants.
The U.S. also executed more than 700 strikes against naval mine targets, Caine said, assessing that the U.S. destroyed more than 95 percent of Iranian naval mines. Moreover, he stressed that the U.S., along with its partners, attacked about 90 percent of Iran's weapons factories.
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