Live updates: Trump says 'very good' Iran talks, hints at 'total resolution'

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Iran's goal for decades has been targeting Americans around the world, saying the regime, has been a "threat" to American "across every theater."

"They have been at war with us, whether we acknowledge it or not, for 47 years," Hegseth said.

"What President (Donald) Trump would not tolerate is a regime of that nature being closer and closer to nuclear capabilities, a capability they would have said they would want to use," Hegseth said.

Asked how close the U.S. is to achieving President Donald Trump's objectives in Iran, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth declined on Thursday to set a timeline.

"We wouldn't want to set a definitive time frame on that, but as we've said, we're on plan," Hegseth said.

"You hear a lot of noise about widening or new missions, or speculation about what we should or should not be doing. This is a clear set of objectives. The president has given us every capability we need to accomplish that. We've got the best in the world in uniform, executing it on the ground," Hegseth said.

Hegseth said the end of the war "will be at the president's choosing."

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said during a press conference on Thursday that the world should be thanking President Donald Trump for fighting this war against Iran.

He broadly characterized American's European allies as "ungrateful," saying they should be among those thanking Trump for "the courage to stop this terror state from holding the world hostage with missiles while building or attempting to build a nuclear bomb."

Hegseth described Iran's current and former leaders, saying, "Their core industries (are) not steel or agriculture, tourism, their core industries are state-sponsored terrorism, proxy militias, underground networks, ballistic missiles and a violent, messianic Islamist ideology chasing some sort of apocalyptic end game."

"A regime like that refusing to abandon its nuclear ambitions is not just a regional problem, it's a direct threat to America, to freedom and to civilization the world, the Middle East, our ungrateful allies in Europe, even segments of our own press should be saying one thing to President Trump, 'Thank you,'" Hegseth said.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the U.S. will be hitting Iran with its largest strike of the conflict on Thursday.

"Iran has funneled decades of state resources not to their people but into missiles and drones and proxies and buried facilities, but we are hunting them down, methodically, ruthlessly and overwhelmingly like no other military in the world can do," Hegseth said at a Pentagon briefing on Thursday.

Hegseth said over 7,000 targets across Iran and its military infrastructure have been struck since the conflict began with joint U.S. and Israeli strikes on Tehran on Feb. 28.

"Their ability to manufacture new ballistic missiles has probably taken the hardest hit of all ballistic missile attacks against our forces down 90% since the start of the conflict. Same with one way attack UAVs," Hegseth said on Thursday.