Pete Hegseth

But our preference

is for these straits to be opened to the way they're supposed to be opened back to the way it was.

Anyone can use it.

No mines in the water.

Nobody paying tolls.

That's what we have to get back to.

And that's the goal here.

Every day the conflict continues.

However, our leverage on Iran will continue to increase and their position will continue to weaken, especially as the blockade really begins.

The operation at Big Fury is concluded.

We achieved the objectives of that operation.

I'm not going to, you know, we're not cheering for an additional situation to occur.

We would prefer the path of peace.

What the president would prefer is a deal.

He would prefer to sit down, work out a memorandum of understanding for future negotiations that touches on all the key topics that have to be addressed, a full opening of the straits so the world can get back to normal.

And he prefers that be negotiated through the route that Steve and Jared have been working and that all of us have been supporting.

That's the route he prefers.

That is so far not the route that Iran has chosen.

And so the result has been that the United States has to do something about the fact that we're the only nation on earth that can do anything to open up a lane within the Straits of Hormuz to get product and to rescue these people that are trapped in there.

And that's what we're undergoing now.