News24 | US in ‘strong in pursuit of a peace deal’ with Iran, says Defence chief Hegseth

IDF Home Front Command and Medics are looking for casualties in a privet house destroyed by a direct hit in Bnei Brak following an Iranian ballistic missile barrage toward Israel.

• The US is still aiming for a deal with Iran, says defence chief Pete Hegseth.
• US ally Israel attacked Iran aiming to eliminate nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
• Israeli military said it killed Iran’s top military commander, Ali Shadmani.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News on Monday that President Donald Trump was still aiming for a nuclear deal with Iran even as hostilities have escalated between US ally Israel and Tehran, while a White House aide said separately that Washington was not attacking Iran.

“Of course,” Hegseth said on Fox News’ Jesse Watters Primetime show when asked if Trump was still aiming for a nuclear deal with Iran.

“We are postured defensively in the region to be strong in pursuit of a peace deal. And we certainly hope that’s what happens here,” Hegseth said.

In a social media post on Monday, Trump said: “Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran,” citing what he said was the country’s rejection of a deal to curb nuclear weapons development.

Israel attacked Iran on Friday and since then the two Middle Eastern rivals have exchanged blows, with Iranian officials reporting over 220 deaths, mostly civilians, in five days while Israel said 24 civilians had been killed.

READ | Trump delivers cryptic ‘evacuate Tehran’ warning as Israel and Iran trade blows

Israel says it aims to eliminate what it calls threats posed by Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and has pointed to its right to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, including enrichment, as a party to the NuclearNon-Proliferation Treaty.

Israel, which is not a party to the NPT, is the only country in the Middle East widely believed to have nuclear weapons. Israel does not deny or confirm that.

AFP reported that the Israeli military said on Tuesday it killed Iran’s top military commander, Ali Shadmani, in an overnight strike, calling him the closest figure to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In a statement, the military said following “a sudden opportunity overnight, the (Israeli air force) struck a staffed command centre in the heart of Tehran and eliminated Ali Shadmani, the war-time Chief of Staff, the most senior military commander, and the closest figure to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei”.

The Israeli military said Shadmani had commanded both the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Iranian armed forces.

The air war between Iran and Israel has raised further alarms in a region that had already been on edge since the start of Israel’s military assault on Gaza in October 2023.

Washington has thus far maintained it is not involved in Israeli attacks on Iran and warned Tehran not to attack US interests or personnel in the region.

“We’re vigilant, we’re prepared, and we have messaged ... consistently from the beginning that we’re in the region to defend our people and our assets,” Hegseth said on Fox News.

White House aide Alex Pfeiffer took to social media platform X to deny online claims that the US was attacking Iran.

“This is not true. American forces are maintaining their defensive posture, and that has not changed,” Pfeiffer said.