The head of the Pentagon threatens to hit Iran strongly if nuclear negotiations fail. “There are other options”

The US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, threatened that the United States could “strongly hit” Iran if negotiations in the nuclear file would not succeed, one day after rare discussions between the two countries meant from preventing Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons, AFP reports.

“If we cannot solve the problem at the negotiation table, there are other options to ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear bomb,” Hegseth said in an interview for CBS on Sunday, “Agerpres writes.

“With what we do against (rebels) Houthi and in the region, we showed up the ability to hit far and very powerful (…) We do not want to reach that point, but if we should, we will do it to prevent Iran from obtaining the nuclear bomb,” he added.

The two countries, which no longer have diplomatic relations since 1980, discussed on Saturday under the mediation of Sultanate Oman.

Hegseth described the discussions as “very constructive”, as did Tehran. Discussions will continue next Saturday.

Western countries, led by the United States, suspects for decades that Tehran wants to equip themselves with nuclear weapons. Iran, whose economy is suffocated by sanctions, rejects the accusations and says that its nuclear activities are limited to civil purposes.

Washington withdrew in 2018 from an international nuclear agreement with Iran, a partially motivated decision by the lack of measures against its ballistic missile program, perceived as a threat to its Israeli ally.

But Donald Trump resumed contact in March, sending a letter to Tehran to relaunch nuclear negotiations, in order to replace the previous agreement that had become null.

At the same time, he threatened to bomb Iran if diplomacy fails and imposed additional sanctions on the Iranian oil sector.