Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered one of his bluntest assessments yet of Iran's military standing, saying the country simply doesn't have the capacity left to rebuild. Asked whether the conflict could still end militarily, Hegseth said Iran had been offered repeated chances to settle things diplomatically, but that US strikes under Operation Epic Fury had gutted its ability to recover. 'Think of it this way: their Raytheons, their Boeings, their Lockheeds, their Northrop Grummans are what was destroyed in Epic Fury,' he said, comparing Iran's defense manufacturers to their American counterparts to drive home the scale of the damage. He acknowledged Tehran is trying to rebuild but described the effort as slow, frustrated, and badly hampered by what the strikes wiped out.

On the Strait of Hormuz specifically, Hegseth was even more direct. 'They don't have a navy, they don't have fast boats, and they've got no air force,' he said. 'We control it. We dominate it.' That claim sits in tension with Iran's own position, Tehran insists the strait remains closed on its terms, not Washington's, and its negotiators have continued threatening to respond with 'new surprises' on the battlefield if talks fail. The Pentagon has previously said more than 20 Iranian naval production facilities were damaged or destroyed during the campaign, a figure US officials argue backs up Hegseth's claim, even as the broader war drags on with no formal resolution in sight.