The top U.S. general said on Wednesday U.S. troops stood ready to resume fighting if Tehran failed to strike a negotiated settlement as the Trump administration sought to portray the war as a decisive victory against Iran.
Ali Bahreini, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations Office in Geneva, Reuters/Denis Balibouse
The top U.S. general said on Wednesday U.S. troops stood ready to resume fighting if Tehran failed to strike a negotiated settlement as the Trump administration sought to portray the war as a decisive victory against Iran.
"We hope that Iran chooses a lasting peace," General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Pentagon news conference.
"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've demonstrated over the last 38 days."
Hegseth said the U.S. military was "hanging around" in the Middle East to ensure Iran complies with the two-week ceasefire and to monitor the country's enriched uranium stockpile.
"On the uranium, we're watching it. We know what they have, and they will give it up, and we'll get it. We'll take it if we have to," Hegseth told reporters.
Our military forces are keeping their preparedness
Iran will approach peace talks with the U.S. with greater caution than in the past due to a deep lack of trust, and the war will affect the future legal regime of the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva said on Wednesday.
"We are not putting any trust in the other side. Our military forces are keeping their preparedness...but meanwhile, we will go for negotiations to see how serious the other side is," the ambassador, Ali Bahreini, told Reuters.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he had invited Iranian and U.S. delegations to meet in Islamabad on Friday for what would be the first official peace talks since the war began, and that Iran's president had confirmed it would attend.
By Idrees Ali, Phil Stewart and Olivia Le Poidevin
The United States expressed confidence that peace talks with Iran would go ahead in Pakistan and a senior Iranian official said Tehran was considering joining, but significant hurdles and uncertainty remained as the end of a ceasefire loomed.
Ships were largely avoiding the Strait of Hormuz on Monday after an escalation at the weekend in which Iran fired what appeared to be warning shots at vessels and the U.S. military seized an Iranian cargo ship.
In a characteristically combative post on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump has pushed back against media narratives surrounding the conflict with Iran, while doubling down on his conviction that Tehran must never acquire a nuclear weapon and openly calling for regime change.
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