The United States has sharpened its rhetoric against Iran while continuing to enforce an expanding naval blockade, with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth accusing Tehran's military forces of destabilizing maritime security and targeting civilian vessels. The comments signal a further hardening of Washington's stance as tensions persist over Iran's nuclear ambitions and regional activities. In a forceful statement, Hegseth described Iran's military posture as weakened and increasingly reliant on irregular tactics at sea, while reiterating that the US is prepared to sustain pressure for as long as necessary.

"There is a rule: nothing in, nothing out. Iran's battered military, the IRGC specifically, has been reduced to a gang of pirates. They cloak their aggression with a flag, but the world sees them for what they are-criminals on the high seas. They don't control anything. They are acting like pirates; they are acting like terrorists. They are the ones who lay indiscriminate mines, who shoot at random ships, who killed 45,000 of their own people-innocent protesters-in the course of weeks, their own people," said Hegseth.