Hegseth defends Iran war as lawmakers clash over "obliterated" nuclear claims

U.S. Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth defended the Trump administration’s military campaign against Iran during a heated House Armed Services Committee hearing on April 29, insisting that Tehran’s nuclear programme had been severely damaged while acknowledging that its “ambitions” had not been eliminated.

“Their nuclear facilities have been obliterated, underground they’re buried, and we’re watching them 24/7 so we know where any nuclear material might be,” Hegseth said, CNN reports.

The remarks came during a tense exchange with Representative Adam Smith, the committee’s ranking Democrat, who challenged the administration’s justification for the war.

“We had to start this war, you just said, 60 days ago, because the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat. Now you’re saying it was completely obliterated?” Smith asked.

Hegseth responded, “They had not given up their nuclear ambitions,” adding, “And they had a conventional shield of thousands of—”

Smith interrupted, saying, “So Operation Midnight Hammer accomplished nothing of substance and left us at exactly the same place we were before. So much so that we had to start a war.”

“You’re missing the point,” Hegseth replied. “Their facilities were bombed and obliterated; their ambitions continued.”

During the hearing, Hegseth also rejected criticism from lawmakers who described the conflict as a “quagmire.” Responding to Democratic Representative John Garamendi, he said:

“My generation served in a quagmire in Iraq and Afghanistan. Years and years of, of nebulous missions and utopian nation-building that led us to nothing,” Hegseth said.

He then accused Garamendi of disrespecting U.S. forces, stating, “Shame on you for that statement, and statements like that are reckless to our troops,” and adding, “Don’t say, ‘I support the troops’ on one hand, and then a two month mission is a quagmire. That’s a false equivalation. Who you cheering for here? Who you pulling for?”

Garamendi, however, had opened his remarks by thanking service members “for their bravery,” and also accused Hegseth and President Donald Trump of “lying to the American public about this war from day one.”

By Sabina Mammadli