US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declines to give a timeline for American operations in Iran.
“Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks, it could move up, it could move back,” Hegseth says in a press conference when pressed on the US exit strategy amid fears that Washington may get dragged into another entrenched Mideast conflict.
Hegseth emphasized that US President Donald Trump will retain full latitude on the duration of Operation Epic Fury.
Trump has given a number of potential timelines, first saying Operation Epic Fury could wrap up in two to three days, then four weeks, then four to five weeks, each time insisting that it could be longer or shorter.
Hegseth says that there are not currently US troops on the ground but declines to rule out the possibility, arguing that doing so would be tipping off the enemy.
Asked about the conflict-opening IDF strike that killed Iran supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Hegseth responds that Israel “did a great job in the context of that operation.”
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