US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has declared a decisive military victory over Iran and said that Tehran’s missile programme has been functionally destroyed.Hegseth and General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke to reporters on Wednesday, a day after US President Donald Trump pulled back from the brink of a threatened full-on assault on Iran two hours before a deadline he had set for Tehran to open the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.“Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield. A capital V military victory,” Hegseth said, adding that the US-Israeli war on Iran achieved “every single objective”, including the destruction of its navy, air defence system, and missile production capability.The ceasefire deal with Iran means Tehran “will never, ever possess a nuclear weapon”. Iran’s new leadership “begged” for a ceasefire because it was “out of options and out of time”.“We finished completely destroying Iran’s defence-industrial base, a core pillar of our mission,” Hegseth added. “They can no longer build missiles.”Hegseth, however, admitted that Iran is not completely defenceless.“They can still shoot, we know that,” he said. “They can still shoot here and there, but that would be very unwise.”Hegseth said the US military was “hanging around” in the Middle East to ensure Iran complies with the two-week ceasefire and to monitor the country’s enric …
