PeteHegseth: Iran needs to come back to the table 'limping and begging'
'Fox & Friends Weekend' host Pete Hegseth says the U.S. can't kick the can down the road any longer on trying to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb.
"Fox & Friends Weekend” co-host Pete Hegseth reacted on Wednesday to Iran firing as many as 15 ballistic missiles into Iraq, saying the “evil regime” needs to “come back to the table for talks on their nuclear capabilities.”
“They’re [Iran is] not as capable as they want the world to believe they are,” Hegseth said on “Fox & Friends” Wednesday.
The missiles were fired into Iraq Wednesday in a major retaliation by the rogue regime after a U.S. drone strike last week that killed Iranian Quds Force Gen. Qassem Soleimani, officials said. The U.S. blamed Soleimani for the killing of hundreds of American troops and said he was plotting new attacks just before his death.
No U.S. casualties were reported in initial assessments of Wednesday's attack, a U.S. military official in Baghdad told Fox News. Hegseth said Iran was trying to save face for Soleimani's death.
“They want something to sell for internal propaganda. I totally get that. None of this though changes the calculation of this regime, which is an evil regime,” Hegseth said on Wednesday. “This is like if ISIS controlled the state, just a Shia version. They have their own caliphate. They want to export it. They’re premised on the exportation of terrorism -- death to America, death to Israel.”
IRAN'S SUPREME LEADER CALLS MISSILE STRIKE AT BASES A 'SLAP IN THE FACE,' WARNS IT'S NOT ENOUGH
Hegseth, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, said he's wary of going back to the negotiating table with Iran unless the mullahs are in a position of weakness.
“They need to come back limping and begging, not seething," he said. "So will this be enough? Will it end here? I don't think so. I don't think even close. ... The president has played this perfectly. He’s played it being careful and cautious.”
Hegseth said President Trump should make it clear to Iran that they could face attacks on key infrastructure, missile sites and oil facilities if they do not give up their pursuit of a nuclear weapon.
"Take out a Quds headquarters while you are at it if you want. I understand that's not a popular idea. I don't want boots on the ground. I don't want occupation. I don't want endless war, but Iran has been in an endless war with us for 40 years," he argued.
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“Either we put up and shut up now and stop it or we kind of wait, go back to the table and let them dither while they attempt to continue to develop the capabilities to do precisely what they’ve said they want to do,” Hegseth continued, cautioning against "missing a moment" and facing more "tit-for-tat" situations with Iran in the future.
He claimed that the current tensions are "on Barack Obama, not Donald Trump," saying the former president "retreated" from Iraq, unleashing ISIS on the Middle East and allowing the Iranians to have influence in Iraq.
Fox News’ Frank Miles contributed to this report.
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