Washington, June 26: Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and other military officials held a press conference to respond to an early leaked intelligence report suggesting US strikes against Iran likely put the country back mere months. President Donald Trump has insisted the US strikes delivered a “devastating” attack and that questioning his assessment of the strike was unpatriotic. Drawing reliable conclusions about the impact of the US strikes is difficult only days after they took place.
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, began the news conference by criticizing the media for “hunting for scandals all the time” and accusing reporters of failing to acknowledge “historic moments” like improved military recruiting and increased spending on European defense by US allies on the continent.
He then shifted to attacking the “fake news” for reporting on a preliminary assessment about the impact of recent US strikes on Iran.
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the comments late Wednesday on a flight back from the NATO summit, where he met with Trump.
He also quoted Trump as expressing willingness to participate in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey, if Russian President Vladimir Putin also agrees to attend. However, Russian and Ukrainian delegations, meeting in Istanbul in late May and June, agreed to swap thousands of dead and seriously wounded troops but made no progress toward ending the 3-year-old war. Putin did not attend the talks, sending a low-level delegation instead. (AP)
