Hegseth says U.S.-Iran truce remains on track despite Lebanon strikes

Pete Hegseth used a tense Sunday television appearance to insist that a U.S.-Iran truce was still moving ahead even as Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs and U.S. forces hit Iran again. His most consequential message was not about the latest bombing run but about the shape of the deal: Tehran would get nothing up front, and its nuclear infrastructure would have to be dismantled.

The interview aired on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan as Qatari mediators were traveling to Tehran to finalize the truce, and it came on a broadcast that also featured Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona and Mark Warner of Virginia, plus former National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn. Brennan told Hegseth, speaking from Tennessee, that the Israeli Defense Force had targeted Hezbollah leadership in Beirut and that CBS had learned the proposed agreement contained only a vague reference to ending fighting in Lebanon. She pressed him on whether that fighting had blown up plans to sign a memorandum that day.

Hegseth said the process was still on track and that the timing was a matter of logistics. He argued that Hezbollah and Iran needed to stop rocket fire into northern Israel, called Israel’s response “very measured,” and said he expected the talks to continue. That was the first clear policy signal of the morning: despite fresh strikes, the administration was not signaling a pause or a reset in the negotiations.

The second signal was even sharper. Hegseth said the deal would be “performance-based” and that no money would be released to Iran until it performed. He said nuclear material would be destroyed and removed, the nuclear program dismantled, and the Strait(s) kept open with “no tolling.” He contrasted that framework with the JCPOA, which he called “a path to a bomb,” while describing the new agreement as “a wall to a bomb.” In other words, the administration was presenting this not as a revived version of the Obama-era accord, but as a far harder bargain tied to physical steps Iran would have to complete before any relief flowed.

The appearance also landed against a broader defense and political backdrop. CBS had reported additional U.S. strikes against Iran earlier that week in response to what CENTCOM called “continued aggression,” and Hegseth had recently been adjusting his public tone on China and Taiwan after the Trump-Xi summit. For the Pentagon, the immediate takeaway from his remarks was that the administration was still betting it could keep the Iran truce alive while tightening the terms around sanctions relief, nuclear rollback and regional force posture.