The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has been speaking in Brussels after meeting with Nato defence ministers there.
He said the US will restart military action and reimpose a blockade against Iran if it does not fulfil its commitments under the agreement signed yesterday.
“The president has pointed out that we will be prepared to recommence if underneath the timeline of these talks, Iran does not do what it says it’s going to do,” Hegseth said.
“If Iran doesn’t comply, then we’re more than able to reimpose an ironclad blockade.”
He also slammed Nato for its perceived lack of support on the Iran war, as my colleague, Jakub Krupa, reports on the Europe live blog.
Hegseth said:
double quotation markThe United States has defended Europe for generations, and the President said all he said was that our jets would need to take off from bases in Europe or our ships from ports to strike targets in the Middle East, Iranian targets that threaten European interests even more directly than they threaten us.
But too many of our allies said no, or tried to drown us in arcane legal debates, or criticised us publicly for doing what they aren’t prepared or able to do themselves. It was shameful.
These allies, they put America’s sons and daughters, our sons and daughters, at risk by denying them the predictable access facing an overflight that never should have been in question at all.”