Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force General Dan Caine hold press briefing on Iran War(March 10, 2026)
War Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday confirmed reports that Israel launched non-US-aligned strikes on Iranian oil depots that went outside of the United States’ mission in Iran and angered US officials.
Citing US and Israeli sources, Axios reports that the strikes against 30 fuel depots on Saturday “went far beyond what the U.S. expected when Israel notified it in advance, sparking the first significant disagreement between the allies since the war began.”
While the IDF claims that the oil sites “are used by the Iranian regime to supply fuel to different consumers, including its military organs,” and the IDF notified the US before striking, the end result was concerning to US officials.
The attack created an explosive inferno, sending a large smoke stack into the sky.
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The strikes also ignited massive oil fires throughout the streets of Tehran.
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A dark smog filled the sky in Tehran with locals reporting acid rain.
Tehran is covered in thick black clouds of smoke this morning after a series of Israeli airstrikes struck multiple oil depots and a refinery.
Locals report that the morning rain was black and oily. pic.twitter.com/4lb7Ld62So
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) March 8, 2026
Per Axios, this caused the US to say, “WTF,” according to an Israeli official. A senior US official said, “We don’t think it was a good idea.” A Trump Advisor also told Axios, “The president doesn’t like the attack. He wants to save the oil. He doesn’t want to burn it. And it reminds people of higher gas prices.”
Iran responded by threatening to retaliate “without delay” if strikes on infrastructure continue.
President Trump appeared to hint at his displeasure with Israel’s actions on Monday, telling reporters that the US has struck “over 5000 targets to date,” but is leaving “some of the most important targets for later, in case we need to do it.”
“If we hit them, it’s going to take many years for them to be rebuilt, having to do with electricity production and many other things, so we’re not looking to do that if we don’t have to,” he added. “We are waiting to see what happens before we hit them. We could take them all out in one day.”
When asked about Israel’s strikes and whether Americans can be assured Israel is not abusing US support, Secretary Hegseth confirmed that Israel pursued their own objectives, which differed from the US’s. Still, he maintained that “We’re not getting pulled in any direction. We’re leading. The President is leading.”
“And I understand those concerns because I’ve heard from a lot of people who went through— I went through 20 years of those wars, myself, worried about getting dragged in,” he said. “Just because previous presidents and previous secretaries have decided to just pour more resources and more people in toward some unguided end state doesn’t mean that’s the way the world needs to look today. In fact, the American people voted for a different approach.”
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine further commented on US plans to strike deeper into Iran with “stand-in precision strikes overhead Iran,” which he revealed in a press briefing last Wednesday, and whether Iran has capabilities to shoot down US planes.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, on Monday, US B-52 Bombers arrived in the UK after Secretary Hegseth and General Caine announced these plans to expand inland into Iranian territory to bring “death and destruction from the sky all day long.” UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer finally caved to Trump’s pressure and allowed the US to use UK airbases to attack Iran after initially refusing.
Chairman Caine told The Gateway Pundit that Iran’s surface-to-air missiles “are not factors at this point in time” as the US continues to strike Iran’s missile launch sites. He then signaled that the US is ready to deploy boots on the ground for search-and-rescue purposes, but declined to comment further on the details or whether this could spark broader boots-on-the-ground operations.
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Transcript:
Conradson: Axios reported, citing US and Israeli sources, that the US was not happy with strikes on 30 fuel depots in Iran. While this is anonymous sourcing, you know, it seems kind of congruent with what President Trump said yesterday, that there’s certain spots they don’t want to hit, relating to energy infrastructure that would take a long time to rebuild. And you know whether this reporting is true or not, what’s your message to Americans, those who supported the president and those who aren’t really in favor of this war and who worry that Israel might be taking advantage of the US’s backing?
And then, Mr. Chairman, for you, I wanted to ask, when you say that we’re moving inland, what capabilities does Iran have to shoot down jets over their land, and would that trigger some kind of rescue operation that could risk a bigger ground operation?
Hegseth: Well, I would just state by saying Israel has been a really strong partner in this effort. Where they have different objectives, they’ve pursued them. Ultimately, we’ve stayed focused on ours. But when Iran— what Iran has felt is the power of the world’s two most powerful air forces. In that particular case, that wasn’t our, those weren’t our strikes, or that objective. Or that wasn’t our– necessarily, our objective.
But the President has made it clear to those concerns that we’re not getting pulled in any direction. We’re leading. The President is leading. He’s determining where we want to go, what the outcome will be, what the end state is, with a very keen eye. And I understand those concerns because I’ve heard from a lot of people who went through— I went through 20 years of those wars, myself, worried about getting dragged in, worried about mission creep, worried about nation building or democracy expansion. That’s never the perspective the President has pursued on this. Just because previous presidents and previous secretaries have decided to just pour more resources and more people in toward some unguided end state doesn’t mean that’s the way the world needs to look today. In fact, the American people voted for a different approach, but what the President also stated from the beginning is Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon.
And it’s one thing to say it. It’s easy to say. Anybody can say that. I mean, Barack Obama said that, but to do something about it takes courage and resolve. But in that courage and in that resolve, you can also be very scoped in what you’re trying to execute to ensure that the sacrifice of Americans, American treasure, American lives, all of those properly meet the objective that you’re trying to accomplish. And certainly, as someone I talked out front about what the Iranians have done to our generation, yes, we’re clear eyed about it. But my job is to keep it scoped, given the directive of the President, to accomplish the mission.
Caine: Thank you for the question. Most of their higher-end surface to air missile systems are not factors at this point in time. We’re able to move around fighters that are moving deeper with relative impunity. Always some risk out there. I don’t want to say that there isn’t, and we’ll always maintain and retain capability of doing search and rescue type of things, but I don’t want to get into the details.
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