Fox anchor Pete Hegseth during "FOX & Friends" at Fox News Channel Studios on August 9, 2019, in New York City. - Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images
LOS ANGELES, June 10 (Reuters) – U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the United States will hit Iran hard on on Wednesday and bomb “key facilities.”
U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to strike Iran ferociously if a peace deal is not reached, raising the risk of escalation after some of the most significant hostilities in two months.
“We’re going to be attacking them, attacking them very hard,” Trump told reporters at the White House, saying the strikes would come later on Wednesday.
The head of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, Ebrahim Azizi, warned in response that the “war won’t be limited to the region.”
During his earlier remarks in the Oval Office, Trump appeared to embrace data showing inflation up more than 4%.
He told reporters that he “loved” inflation and reiterated his belief that prices will fall as soon as the war ends.
Asked about U.S. government data showing consumer inflation increased at its fastest pace in three years in May, and whether it could hobble his fellow Republicans just months ahead of November’s midterm election, Trump said: “I love the inflation.”
The president then explained how he greenlit a plan to move oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz secretly over concerns about higher costs and increasing inflation.
“It was worth it to me,” Trump said about his calculus and calling the operation a success.
“When it’s over, you will see oil drop to where it was before,” Trump said of the larger war. “It’s coming down. It’s going to come down like a rock.”
Oil prices rose nearly $3 a barrel after Trump’s latest remarks that the U.S. would attack Iran “very hard,” and as market data showed a larger-than-expected drawdown in U.S. crude inventories.
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