The Pentagon has presented its first public estimate of the cost of the war to date. The value: US$25 billion (more than R$125 billion). The data was released during testimony by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and General Dan Caine in the US Congress on the war in the Middle East.
Hegseth’s hearing comes at a time when peace negotiations with Tehran have reached an impasse.
The Secretary of Defense, who is criticized by the Democratic opposition due to the lack of information provided about the conflict, answers questions from members of the House Armed Services Committee.
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Democrats pressed Hegseth on the war, questioning what it achieved. The secretary attacked critics of the Trump administration, saying that the “greatest adversary” of the American military is the “ineffective and defeatist words” of Democrats and some Republicans in Congress.
The Pentagon’s budget request of US$1.45 trillion – an increase of approximately 40% compared to this year’s budget, is also the topic of the hearing. Hegseth insisted that the spending was necessary to put the Pentagon’s industrial base into a “state of war.”
In a meeting with oil industry executives, President Donald Trump said he is considering maintaining the naval blockade of Iranian ports for months, if necessary.
During a state dinner at the White House on Tuesday, 28, Trump told King Charles III that Tehran had been “militarily defeated”. Iranian Armed Forces spokesman Amir Akraminia, however, declared on state television moments later that the Islamic Republic does not consider “the war over” and that Tehran “does not trust the United States.”
Tehran’s most recent proposal, transmitted by mediator Pakistan and discussed by Trump and his advisors in a meeting on Monday, the 27th, establishes non-negotiable points, the so-called “red lines”, which include the Iranian nuclear program and the Strait of Hormuz, according to the news agency Fars.
Reports indicate the plan would also require Tehran to reduce control over the shipping channel and for Washington to lift its blockade of Iranian ports while broader negotiations continue.
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