Watch Live: Pete Hegseth, Dan Caine holding press briefing after Trump agrees to 2-week ceasefire with Iran
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine are briefing reporters Wednesday at the Pentagon after President Trump said Tuesday night he’d agreed to an immediate, conditional two-week ceasefire with Iran. After the announcement, there were signs that shipping traffic was picking up in the vital Strait of Hormuz.
“Iran has been a threat to the United States and the free world for 47 years,” Hegseth said as he opened the briefing. “No longer, not on our watch.”
Hegseth echoed the president’s message, touting a “big day for world peace.”
“Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield,” Hegseth said. “By any measure, Epic Fury decimated Iran’s military and rendered it combat ineffective for years to come.
Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social on Tuesday that he had agreed to “suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks,” adding that the U.S. has “already met and exceeded all Military objectives.”
Vice President JD Vance, speaking while on a trip to Hungary, called the ceasefire a “fragile truce.”
But at least three explosions were heard around Iran’s Lavan Island Oil Refinery, the country’s state media reported Wednesday, hours after President Trump said the U.S. and Iran had agreed to a conditional two-week ceasefire.
It was not immediately clear whether U.S. or Israeli forces had launched new attacks on the island, which sits less than 10 miles off Iran’s coast in the Persian Gulf, west of the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz.
Israel has also agreed to the ceasefire proposal, a White House official told CBS News. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced late Tuesday night that while Israel supports the United States’ two-week ceasefire with Iran, the accord doesn’t cover the fighting between Israel’s military and Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Iranian proxy.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi confirmed that Iran had agreed to halt “defensive operations,” likely referring to its drone and missile strikes on U.S. allies in the region, if the U.S. stops attacking Iran. Araghchi also said Iran’s armed forces will coordinate to allow for “safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.”
A maritime monitoring service said Wednesday that vessel movement was resuming in the Strait of Hormuz, with at least two ships, a Greek-owned bulk carrier and a Liberia-flagged vessel, moving through the waterway.
“Early signs of vessel activity are emerging in the Strait of Hormuz following a ceasefire,” MarineTraffic said on social media.
After the ceasefire announcement, oil prices plunged Wednesday, staying well above pre-war levels but dropping below the $100 a barrel mark, and stocks soared in early trading.
Tucker Reals
contributed to this report.
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