Hegseth refuses to explain Iran strategy, calls Cuba security threat

US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth appeared before Senate lawmakers on Tuesday and repeatedly declined to explain the administration’s strategy for ending the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, dismissed calls for a war authorisation vote, and confirmed that he regards Cuba as a national security threat to the United States, in the grilling session of the hearing that ranged across the widest set of security concerns a defence secretary has faced in years.

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Under sustained questioning, Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine refused to give any hint of a clear plan for reopening the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping, the vital corridor through which one fifth of the global oil and LNG passes through and Iran has closed it.

Sen. Susan Collins noted that “it seems there has been a different plan almost daily with dealing with this problem.” When Hegseth claimed the USA “ultimately” controls the strait, Senator Chris Coons asked him repeatedly on what that meant in practice and asked “If we control it, how do we reopen it?”