President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks to draw direct connections between the ongoing Iran war and the original war on terror.
Both officials spoke at a Pentagon ceremony, framing the conflict with Iran as a natural continuation of the global counterterrorism campaign launched after the 2001 attacks in New York.
Trump addressed the crowd with pointed remarks aimed at Iran, drawing applause from those gathered at the ceremony marking the solemn anniversary.
“We salute the service members working right now to ensure the world’s number one sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran, will never ever have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
Hegseth, who spoke before the president, struck a combative tone, invoking decades of Iranian hostility toward the United States and its military personnel abroad.
“Our warriors have fought an Islamic theocracy that has wished us death for nearly half a century, that cheered on 9/11,” Hegseth said, adding that the regime “sponsored terrorist attacks against Americans for decades, killing thousands, including our comrades in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Hegseth also declared that American forces remain on the offensive, telling the audience the U.S. is “still sending terrorists where they belong — to hell — and tankers to the bottom of the ocean, where they belong.”
The Defense Secretary further reiterated that the United States now controls the Strait of Hormuz and has effectively destroyed Iran’s naval capabilities during the conflict.
The original global war on terror was declared in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, lasted nearly two decades, and was primarily focused on dismantling al-Qaeda militant networks before the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
Trump indicated earlier this week that he expects the Iran war, which has now passed the six-month mark, to continue through the November midterm elections, predicting it will “end immediately” afterward.
“They can’t hold out any longer,” Trump told reporters, expressing confidence that Iran’s position is increasingly untenable as the conflict drags on.
The White House separately told The Hill that the U.S. “is watching Iran and has eyes on their every move,” signaling continued close surveillance of Iranian activities throughout the region.
