Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was on “Sunday Morning Futures” with Maria Bartiromo and discussed air strikes as a response to aggression from the Iran-backed Houthis.
“An era of peace through strength is back,” Hegseth said.
“We are sitting on four years of deferred maintenance from Joe Biden, where in particular when you talk about the Houthis, they were allowed for over a hundred times to shoot at US ships, to shoot at commercial shipping,” Hegseth continued.
Hegseth had a very clear warning to the Houthis if they didn’t stop attacking US interests.
“This campaign is about freedom of navigation and restoring deterrence. The minute the Houthis say, we will stop shooting at your ships, we will stop shooting at your drones, this campaign will end, but until then, it will be unrelenting,” Hegseth warned.
The Sec Def also warned Iran not to get involved with assisting the Houthis.
“We will not be nice about it. This is not the Biden administration. The message is clear. We will come after the Houthis until they stop shooting at our ships and the Iranians better stay out of it,” Hegseth warned.
Bartiromo also discussed the economic impact of ships avoiding those areas because of fear of being attacked.
“What ended up happening from an economic perspective as well, many commercial ships were afraid to even go into that route in the Red Sea. They were going around the horn and it was costing much more money,” Bartiromo said.
“It’s not just a national security issue, but an economic one as well,” Bartiromo continued.
“The President understands that. Global shipping, global commerce, when it’s threatened by effectively pirates and piracy, and you have to divert, and go an extra two weeks, costing millions and then eventually billions of dollars, you are being held hostage by a terrorist organization,” Hegseth said.
“We are squeezing them economically, we are pounding them militarily,” Hegseth said.
“This will continue until you say we are done shooting at ships, we are done shooting at assets,” Hegseth warned.
The Sec Def also explained that this was about protecting US interests and not the internal issues that they have within their own country.
Watch:
Today exclusively on @SundayFutures with @MariaBartiromo, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth @SecDef @PeteHegseth spoke about the U.S. launching airstrikes against Iran-backed Houthis.@FoxNews pic.twitter.com/8S34vsrPwt
— SundayMorningFutures (@SundayFutures) March 16, 2025
