Pete Hegseth vows Iran will surrender and Trump will set the terms with US forces ready ‘to go as far as needed’

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has vowed that Iran will have no choice but to surrender as the joint US-Israeli operation in the country stretched into a second week.

Hegseth made the assertion as he sat down with Major Garrett for an interview on ’60 Minutes’ that aired Sunday night, when he was asked what President Donald Trump meant when he said the US is demanding ‘unconditional surrender’ from Iran.

‘It means we’re fighting to win. It means we set the terms. We’ll know when they’re not capable of fighting. There’ll be a point where they’ll have no choice but to do that. Whether they know it or not, they will be combat-ineffective. They will surrender,’ he replied.

The Defense Secretary then went on to say that Trump will ultimately set the terms of Iran’s defeat.

‘Whether they want to admit it or not, whether their pride lets them say it out loud or not — it’s President Trump who will set the terms of that,’ Hegseth said. 

Trump told the Times of Israel on Sunday that the decision to ultimately end the war will be made ‘mutually’ between him and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

‘I think it’s mutual… a little bit. We’ve been talking,’ the president said. ‘I’ll make a decision at the right time, but everything’s going to be taken into account.’

Still, Hegseth vowed in the ’60 Minutes’ interview that the US military is ‘willing to go as far as we need to to be successful’ in the operation to eliminate Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

When he was then asked about the option of sending boots on the ground, Hegseth said: ‘We reserve the right – we would be completely unwise if we did not reserve the right to take any particular option, whether it included boots on the ground or no boots on the ground.’ 

Either way, Hegseth said: ‘The president’s been right to say there will be casualties.’ 

‘Things like this don’t happen without casualties,’ he asserted. ‘There will be more casualties… especially our generation knows what it’s like to see Americans come home in caskets.

‘But that doesn’t weaken us one bit. It stiffens our spine and our resolve to say this is a fight we will finish.’

Hegseth gave the interview on Friday, just one day before he and Trump  attended the first dignified transfer ceremony for those killed in the Iran war.

They traveled to Dover Air Force Base, where the remains of six US service members who died in Kuwait were returned to their families.

The deceased include  Nicole Amor, 39, Cody Khork, 35, Declan Coady, 20, Robert Marzan, 54, Jeffrey O’Brien, 45 and Noah Tietjens, 42, died in the conflict. 

An unidentified seventh US service member also died after being ‘seriously wounded’ during an Iranian attack on US troops in Saudi Arabia on March 1, the US Central Command said on Sunday afternoon. 

Iran has been pounding the Gulf states ever since the US-Israeli operation began last week, with sirens sounding across Israel overnight and the United Arab Emirates saying it shot down Iranian drones.

In Iraq, air defenses shot down a drone early Monday as it approached a US-operated military compound inside Baghdad International Airport.

And in Saudi Arabia, US officials and their family members were urged to leave the country ‘due to safety risks.’ 

But Iran has not avoided damage itself, as its capital, Tehran, erupted into flames on Sunday. 

The skies over the city turned a disquieting red and filled with acrid smoke after several oil and fuel depots were blown up across the Iranian capital.

Huge fireballs could also be seen erupting across the city’s skyline, while residents complained of a lingering burning smell in the air, as both the US and Israel doubled down on their pledge to fight until the ‘eradication’ of the Iranian regime.

The head of Iran’s Military Office Abu al-Qassem Baba’iyan was killed in the latest wave of attacks, the IDF claimed on X.

The military official was also the Chief of Staff of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters. He is the latest major figure in the regime to be killed in Israeli strikes.

Yet officials in the country remained defiant, as they appointed a new Supreme Leader on Sunday – Mojtaba Khamenei, the second eldest son of the former Supreme Leader.

Mojtaba, 56,  has strong links to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and was chosen by Iran’s Assembly of Experts ‘under pressure from the Revolutionary Guards’, according to Iranian media. 

US diplomatic cables have previously described him as ‘the power behind the robes’ and one of the key players within the regime, according to the Associated Press.

While Khamenei  has not held senior political roles, he studied under religious conservatives in Islamic seminaries in the Shiite holy city Qom.

Trump has previously said he would personally select a new leader and called Khamenei’s son ‘unacceptable,’ as Israeli officials said they would eliminate whoever was to take charge of the country next.

But in Iran, videos showed regime supporters chanting Mojtaba’s name and urging even more strikes across the Middle East moments after his appointment was announced.

Large crowds in Tehran waved Iranian flags and shouted, ‘Allahu Akbar, Khamenei Rahbar’, meaning: ‘God is great, Khamenei is the leader.’

More ominous still, the Iranian military vowed to respond to any Israeli attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure by striking oil sites across the region – after Israel targeted reserves the night before.

‘The governments of Islamic countries are expected to warn the criminal America and the savage Zionist regime of such cowardly, inhumane actions as soon as possible,’ Ebrahim Zolfaghari, spokesman for Iran’s central military command told state TV.

‘Otherwise, similar measures will be taken in the region, and if you can tolerate oil at more than $200 per barrel, continue this game.’