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Apr 08, 2026

US Claims Iran Forced to Seek Ceasefire After Devastating Two‑Week ‘Operation Epic Fury’

AI Summary
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that Iran “begged” for a two‑week cease‑fire after a massive U.S. air campaign, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, crippled Iran’s defense industry. The pause follows a 40‑day conflict that has cost over 5,000 lives and $12.7 billion in U.S. expenditures, with a $200 billion supplemental request pending Congress.

At a Pentagon briefing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asserted that Iran’s request for a temporary cease‑fire was a direct result of the United States’ intensive air campaign, which he described as having reduced Iran’s weapons factories to rubble and rendered its military ineffective for years to come.

Hegseth, standing beside Joint Chiefs Chairman Dan Caine, said the final wave of strikes before President Donald Trump announced a two‑week pause had completely destroyed Iran’s defense industrial base. While Iran can still fire from existing stockpiles, it can no longer replace lost munitions, according to the secretary.

President Trump posted on Truth Social that he had agreed to suspend hostilities less than two hours before his self‑imposed deadline to “decimate the entirety of Iranian civilization.” The decision followed a last‑minute diplomatic push by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Gen Asim Munir.

Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi confirmed Tehran’s acceptance of the pause, and the country’s supreme national security council announced it would send a delegation to Islamabad for formal talks starting Friday.

Both sides claimed victory: Iran’s security council said it had achieved “nearly all the objectives of the war,” while the United States highlighted the crippling of Iran’s military capabilities.

The cease‑fire ends a conflict that began on 28 February, when the U.S. and Israel launched nearly 900 strikes in a 12‑hour window against Iranian military infrastructure, missile sites, and leadership. The opening day saw the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, with his son Mojtaba Khamenei named successor on 8 March.

Hegseth warned that the United States had prepared additional strikes on Iran’s power plants, bridges and energy infrastructure—targets he said Iran could not defend or rebuild for decades—if Tehran had refused the pause.

According to Joint Chiefs Chairman Caine, 13 U.S. service members were killed during the fighting. Total casualties across the region exceed 5,000, including over 1,600 Iranian civilians and at least 1,497 deaths in Lebanon. By the sixth day of the war, U.S. military spending had reached roughly $12.7 billion, with a pending supplemental request of $200 billion before Congress.

The future of a lasting settlement remains uncertain. Trump later announced that Iran would hand over its enriched uranium and cease all enrichment activities, while Iran’s supreme national security council released a 10‑point counter‑proposal that explicitly demands the right to continue enrichment.

Disagreements also persist over the cease‑fire’s scope. Israel maintains that the pause does not apply to Lebanon, where ground and air campaigns are at their most intense since Israel’s northern invasion. Both Pakistan and Iran, however, have stated that Lebanon is included in the cease‑fire. Subsequent reports indicated Iranian missile and drone attacks on Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, as well as strikes on Iran’s oil infrastructure on Lavan Island.

Iran’s supreme national security council warned that its forces remain on high alert, stating, “our hands are on the trigger, and any mistake by the enemy will be met with full force.” When asked about the long‑term U.S. presence in the region, Hegseth replied unequivocally: “We’re not going anywhere.”