Adam Hawamy, a New Jersey Democrat who was elected to the House last week, has refused to explicitly say that Iran is an adversary of the United States.
Hawamy, a plastic surgeon and former U.S. Army physician, had a contentious interview with CNN's Pamela Brown on Tuesday and repeatedly avoided a "yes or no" answer to whether he viewed Iran as an enemy.
"Do you see Iran as the adversary and Israel as an ally to the US?" Brown first asked.
In response, Hawamy said: "Well, now what I see is that we were pushed into this war by Israel. It’s not helping Americans. Americans didn’t ask for it. It’s illegal. It’s immoral. And at this point, I think the United States and the Iranians want this war to end."
Again Brown asked: "Do you see Iran as the adversary?"
"I see we pushed them into a fight, and so I think we both have to step back and say, is this helping either one of us?" Hawamy said.
For a third time, Brown asked if Iran was an adversary, to which Brown said, "We’re making adversaries when we should be making friends."
This is when Brown mentioned that people inside Iran have been chanting "death to America" for decades.
"We’ve been saying death to Iran for decades as well, and so what we need to do is use diplomacy," Hawamy said.
For a fourth time, Brown asked if he saw Iran as an adversary. This time, Hawamy said he favored an approach similar to Barack Obama's when he was president.
“I see that we are pushing Iran into a fight when we have the leverage to kind of bring them to the table. And we did that during the Obama administration, and we could do that again if we use diplomacy, our leverage, and our economic, not just military power, to create friends in the region, to pressure them as well, and to bring peace to the region if we want to,” Hamawy said.
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp said an oil tanker caught fire after hitting a mine early Wednesday, The Associated Press reported.
The United Kingdom's Maritime Trade Operations Center also reported an incident with a tanker in the Strait, but it's not clear if it was the same vessel referred to by the IRGC.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been relocated from his home in Washington, D.C., to a military base amid Iranian assassination threats this week, a senior administration official confirmed to Fox News on Tuesday.
Tehran has ramped up its efforts to target senior U.S. officials overseas, with White House chief of staff Stephen Miller and Secretary of State Marco Rubio also relocating to military or protected housing in recent weeks.
The senior official told Fox that threats against Bessent had reached "more than an advanced stage." The official declined to say when exactly Bessent was relocated.
Bessent has played a central role in the economic battle against Iran, launching "Operation Economic Outcast" this summer in an effort to isolate Iran's economy from the rest of the world.
This is an excerpt from a story by Fox News Digital's Anders Hagstrom. Read more here.
{{#rendered}}In a closed door meeting with the foreign ministers of the G7 Nations in Paris, Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave an update on the Iran war, informing them that the U.S. was largely staying the course.
President Donald Trump “doesn’t just have two options. It’s not just return to war or sign a ridiculous peace deal. We won’t do a stupid deal. The third option we have is to continue to do what we do now,” Rubio said, according to Axios, which cited three people who were in the room.
Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Trump's son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent — who was recently moved onto a military base after Iranian threats — all favor continuing a policy of economic strangulation, Axios reported.
Trump and Rubio also appear to agree that Iran wants a deal, but is demanding terms the U.S. considers unrealistic.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has moved out of his home and onto a military base after Iranian threats against his life, a senior administration official told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.
"The move shows that Treasury’s strategy regarding Iran is working because Iran is trying to get to the architect of that strategy," the official said, without confirming when Bessent had moved onto the base.
“Threats against Sec. Bessent reached more than an advanced stage, which is why he and his family made the move,” the official added.
A Treasury Department spokesperson also confirmed the move and said the treasury secretary will “not be deterred by the Iranian regime’s threats.”
Bessent launched operations Economic Fury and Economic Outcast to isolate Iran financially through sanctions and restrictions on trade routes.
He is the latest senior White House official to leave a Washington-area home for a military base or other protected housing.
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