{"id":49904,"date":"2026-04-08T15:51:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T15:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2026\/04\/08\/us-forces-will-be-hanging-around-middle-east-after-iran-ceasefire-hegseth-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T17:07:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T17:07:57","slug":"us-forces-will-be-hanging-around-middle-east-after-iran-ceasefire-hegseth-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2026\/04\/08\/us-forces-will-be-hanging-around-middle-east-after-iran-ceasefire-hegseth-says\/","title":{"rendered":"US forces will be \u2018hanging around\u2019 Middle East after Iran ceasefire, Hegseth says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday emphasized that American forces would be \u201changing around\u201d in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2026\/04\/07\/trump-says-he-has-agreed-to-two-week-ceasefire-with-iran\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2026\/04\/07\/trump-says-he-has-agreed-to-two-week-ceasefire-with-iran\/\">Middle East<\/a> for the duration of the armistice between the United States, Israel and Iran \u2014 even as Washington edges toward an offramp from its 38-day campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The remarks came one day after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2026\/04\/07\/a-whole-civilization-will-die-tonight-trump-says-as-iran-defies-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"\" title=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2026\/04\/07\/a-whole-civilization-will-die-tonight-trump-says-as-iran-defies-deal\/\">President Donald Trump<\/a> declared a two-week ceasefire with Iran, stepping back from earlier threats to level Iranian civilization. The president said he hopes the pause will pave the way for negotiations toward a longer-term agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hegseth noted that the United States had carried out more than 800 strikes against targets in the hours leading up to the pause in hostilities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He added that if Tehran had refused to agree, attacks would have expanded to include \u201cpower plants, the bridges and oil and energy infrastructure.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The defense secretary went on to hail Operation Epic Fury as a \u201chistoric and overwhelming victory on the battlefield,\u201d painting a picture of an Iranian military in ruins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cCentral Command, using less than 10% of America\u2019s total combat power, dismantled one of the world\u2019s largest militaries, the world\u2019s leading state sponsor of terrorism,\u201d Hegseth said during a news conference at the Pentagon. \u201cTheir mission program is functionally destroyed. Launchers, production facilities and existing stockpiles, depleted, and decimated.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, enumerated the claimed results of the U.S. offensive in Iran: 80% of Iran\u2019s air-defense systems destroyed, 800 one-way attack drone storage facilities and 450 ballistic missile storage facilities hit, and 150 ships sunk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cEpic Fury decimated Iran\u2019s military and rendered it combat ineffective for years to come,\u201d Hegseth asserted. \u201cIran\u2019s Navy is at the bottom of the sea&#8230;Iran\u2019s Air Force has been wiped out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But despite the devastation, Tehran has remained defiant. The Islamic Republic, using a decentralized command structure built to survive decapitation, orchestrated an average of 120 drone and missile attacks per day across the region throughout the conflict\u2019s duration. Crucially, it also maintained effective control over the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 a strategic leverage that sent oil prices soaring. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since the start of the war on Feb. 28, 13 American service members had been killed in action and more than 365 had been wounded, according to the Pentagon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Caine, for his part, struck a note of more guarded pragmatism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe welcome the ongoing ceasefire,\u201d he said. \u201cLet us be clear: a ceasefire is a pause, and the joint force remains ready if ordered or called upon to resume combat operations with the same speed and precision as we\u2019ve demonstrated over the last 38 days. And we hope that that is not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Asked by reporters about Iran\u2019s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, Hegseth expressed hope that Tehran would hand it over to Washington \u201cvoluntarily.\u201d If not, he warned, America might still try to seize the material by force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s buried, and we\u2019re watching it, we know exactly what they have,\u201d Hegseth said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey\u2019ll give it to us voluntarily,\u201d he continued. \u201cOr if we have to do something else ourselves \u2014 like we did in Midnight Hammer or something like that \u2014 we reserve that opportunity.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite the claimed devastation of the U.S. military&#8217;s air campaign, Iran has remained defiant. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":112330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[160,11,47,36,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3488],"class_list":["post-49904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-global","category-mideast-africa","category-newsletters","category-pentagon"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"USKHT3YCNBE3HCCPTOQUCG2TCA","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2026\/04\/08\/us-forces-will-be-hanging-around-middle-east-after-iran-ceasefire-hegseth-says\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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