{"id":47982,"date":"2026-04-16T15:04:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=47982"},"modified":"2026-04-16T15:04:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T15:04:29","slug":"pete-hegseth-says-us-forces-ready-to-restart-combat-if-iran-doesnt-agree-a-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=47982","title":{"rendered":"Pete Hegseth says US forces ready to restart combat if Iran doesn&#8217;t agree a deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>US forces in the Middle East are postured to restart \u200ccombat operations immediately if Iran doesn&#8217;t agree to a peace deal, top American military officials said on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>As part of a campaign to pressure Tehran to sign an agreement, US military \u200bforces are mounting a blockade on all ships seeking to enter or \u200bleave Iran.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You Iran, can choose a prosperous future, a golden \u2060bridge, and we hope that you do for the people of \u200bIran,&#8221; War Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Pentagon briefing.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But if Iran chooses \u200bpoorly, then they will have a blockade and bombs dropping on infrastructure, power and energy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration expressed\u00a0optimism\u00a0on Wednesday about reaching a deal to end the war \u200bwith Iran, while also warning of increasing economic pressure against Tehran \u200bif it remains defiant.<\/p>\n<p>Read More:\u00a0No date finalised for second round of US-Iran talks: FO<\/p>\n<p>Hegseth, addressing the Iranian leadership, said &#8220;this is not a fair \u200cfight, \u2060and we know what military assets you are moving and where you are moving them to.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said US forces were &#8220;ready to resume major combat operations at literally a \u200bmoment&#8217;s notice.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>US Navy \u200bships would pursue \u2060any Iranian flagged vessel or any vessel attempting to provide material support to Iran, he told the briefing.<\/p>\n<p>Ships \u200btrying to break the blockade would be intercepted and \u200bwarned that &#8220;If \u2060you do not comply with this blockade, we will use force&#8221;. Enforcement would occur inside Iran&#8217;s territorial seas and in international waters, he said.<\/p>\n<p>A \u2060total \u200bof 13 ships have chosen to turn \u200baround rather than break the blockade, Caine said, adding that no ships had been boarded so \u200bfar.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>US forces in the Middle East are postured to restart \u200ccombat operations immediately if Iran doesn&#8217;t agree to a peace deal, top American military officials said on Thursday. As part of a campaign to pressure Tehran to sign an agreement, US military \u200bforces are mounting a blockade on all ships seeking to enter or \u200bleave [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}