Defense

Hegseth claims ‘historic and overwhelming victory’ after Iran ceasefire

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by Ellen Mitchell - 04/08/26 8:54 AM ET

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by Ellen Mitchell - 04/08/26 8:54 AM ET

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday claimed “overwhelming victory” over Iran, hours after President Trump announced a 14-day ceasefire.

“Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield, a capital V military victory by any measure,” Hegseth said at a Pentagon briefing. “Epic fury decimated Iran’s military and rendered it combat ineffective for years to come.”

Hegseth also claimed Iran had begged for a deal due to Trump’s threats to bomb the country “back to the Stone Ages.”

“You see, had Iran refused our terms, the next targets would have been their power plants, their bridges and oil and energy infrastructure, targets they could not defend and could not realistically rebuild,” he said. “They couldn’t defend against it. President Trump had the power to cripple Iran’s entire economy in minutes.”

Hegseth’s comments echo those of Trump’s, who insisted Tuesday that the United States had won a “total and complete victory” against Iran after agreeing to the ceasefire deal with the country.

The two sides agreed on the ceasefire just an hour before Trump’s deadline to attack Iranian infrastructure after outreach from Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

“Total and complete victory. 100 percent. No question about it,” Trump told AFP when asked if he was claiming victory with the ceasefire.

The Iranian Supreme National Security Council also said it accepted the two-week ceasefire and reportedly will begin negotiations on a long-term peace with the U.S. on Friday in Islamabad, Pakistan. Tehran’s key concession was allowing shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

However, the deal does not appear to include Iranian commitments on uranium enrichment or giving up its nuclear material, key aims of Iran hawks. It also leaves the hardline Iranian regime in place. The U.S. has also said it wants Iranian commitments to stop funding proxies across the region.

Despite Iran’s lack of nuclear commitments, Hegseth claimed that Tehran had agreed to remove enriched uranium buried underground as part of the temporary truce.

“They know this agreement means that they will never, ever assess a nuclear weapon,” Hegseth said of Iran.

“Under the terms, any nuclear material they should have will be removed. Their dust is deeply buried and watched 24/7 overhead. The President has been clear from the beginning, there will be no Iranian nuclear weapons. Period. Full stop,” he said.

Trump, in a Truth Social post earlier in the morning, also said, “There will be no enrichment of Uranium, and the United States will, working with Iran, dig up and remove all of the deeply buried (B-2 Bombers) Nuclear ‘Dust.’”

Hegseth took the briefing to highlight what he called a “decisive military victory” over Iran as part of Operation Epic Fury, claiming the U.S., along with Israel, “achieved every single objective” and had largely destroyed Tehran’s military.

“In less than 40 days, . . .[U.S. Central Command], using less than 10 percent of America’s total combat power, dismantled one of the world’s largest militaries, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism,” he said. “In last night’s wave of more than 800 strikes, we finished completely destroying Iran’s defense industrial base, a core pillar of our mission.”

Hegseth acknowledged Iran’s remaining capability, saying they “may shoot here and there,” but downplayed the option, saying “what little they have left, buried in bunkers, is all they will have.”

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine, who spoke alongside Hegseth, noted that a ceasefire is just a pause for now, and the U.S. military “remains ready if ordered or called upon to resume combat operations the same speed and precision as we’ve demonstrated over the last 38 days. We hope that that is not the case.”

Caine listed off a string of U.S. military achievements, saying American forces had struck more than 13,000 targets, destroyed approximately 80 percent of Iran’s air defense systems, hit more than 450 ballistic missile storage facilities, destroyed more than 2,000 command and control nodes, sunk 150 ships and took out more than 95 percent of Iran’s naval mines.

He also began his comments by marking the loss of 13 service members in the conflict.

“I want to start this morning by honoring the 13 members of our American joint force who were killed in action thus far during this operation, their sacrifice and th