US plans to escalate Iran war as ceasefire looks fragile: Hegseth

A month-old ceasefire in Iran looked increasingly fragile on Tuesday as Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the United States (US) had “a plan to escalate, if necessary”, a day after President Trump dismissed an Iranian proposal to end the war as “garbage”. 

 

Hesgeth, speaking at a congressional hearing on the Pentagon’s budget request, said the US military had several options in West Asia, but he declined to describe the administration’s next step. 

 

“We have a plan to escalate if necessary, we have a plan to retrograde if necessary, we have a plan to shift assets,” Hegseth replied, saying he didn’t want to offer those details in a public setting. 

 

 

Lawmakers with oversight of Pentagon spending pressed Hegseth over the growing costs of the Iran war. The Pentagon’s acting comptroller, Jules Hurst, told lawmakers that the estimated cost of the Iran war to date was now closer to $29 billion, after giving a $25 bil- lion price tag at a hearing on April 29. 

 

“There has been a consistent lack of transparency since this war began,” Representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the most senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said on Tuesday. She said costs were growing daily and that the administration’s strategy for the conflict wasn’t clear, even as it seemed like active hostilities might begin again. 

 

“The end game is ill-defined, when it is defined at all,” she added. Representative Betty McCollum of Minnesota, the senior Democrat on the defence subcom- mittee, pointed to the previous $25 billion estimate given for the war’s costs and asked for the senior Pentagon officials to “drill down” with more details. McCollum asked for an additional breakdown on the costs for operations, additional maintenance on deployed ships, spent munitions, lost equipment and damage to US facilities. 

 

The Pentagon’s budget request crams significant priorities such as drones and high-performing muni- tions into a $350 billion mandatory spending request, leaving Republicans only one avenue to get it through: a party-line process known as reconciliation that requires near unanimity within the GOP. 

 

Yet with midterm elections looming and voters concerned about affordability, even Republi- cans warned that congressional support might not last. 

 

Representative Jake Ellzey, a Texas Republican, called the $1.5 trillion budget request “a hard ask” for members that will be difficult to sell to the American public. On Monday, Trump said a fragile ceasefire between Washington and Tehran was on “massive life support” amid growing frustrating at the White House that Iran is making demands that US negoti- ators could never agree to — including paying reparations and letting Iran control Hormuz. 

 

Iranian officials meanwhile issued statements signalling con- tinued resolve in the face of US pressure. A Fars news agency report cited Mohammad Akbarza- deh, deputy political director of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, as saying Iran had expanded its definition of the Strait of Hormuz into a “vast operational area” under a new plan. 

 

There was no immediate reply from Iranian authorities to a request for comment on Akbarzadeh’s remarks, which defined the waterway as a zone stretching from the coast of the city of Jask in the east to Siri Island in the west. In Iran’s capital Tehran, the Guards held drills “centered on preparation to confront the enemy”, state TV reported. 

 

‘Extremely optimistic’ about Nato’s future, says Rutte Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Tuesday he is “extremely optimistic” about the future of the alliance. “When you look at the short term, of course there are discussions, about Iran, and how we make sure that allies in Europe will be able to help with situations in the Strait of Hormuz,” Rutte said in Montenegro. 

 

“When it comes to the more fundamental question of Nato’s future, I’m extremely opti- mistic,” he added, as he referred to commitments by European allies and Canada to increase their defence spending. “It is not only crucial to equalise our defence spending with the US, but also because we need to defend ourselves against our adversaries, particularly Russia.”