WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that the United States' objectives in the war against Iran have not changed since strikes started on February 28.
The United States has carried out strikes against 7,000 targets inside Iran so far, and hit more than 40 Iranian mine-laying vessels and 11 submarines, according to the Pentagon.
"Our objectives, given directly from our America-first president, remain exactly what they were on day one," Hegseth told reporters.
"These are not the media's objectives, not Iran's objectives, not new objectives. Our objectives - unchanged, on target and on plan," Hegseth added. He spent several minutes in his opening statement criticizing the press.
Hegseth told reporters that the objectives remained to destroy Iran's missile launchers, as well as its defense industrial base and navy and to never allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon.
In the same briefing, General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the U.S. military remained on track to achieve the objectives and the United States was striking deeper into Iranian territory every day.
(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Idrees Ali, Katharine Jackson, Daphne Psaledakis; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
