Hegseth's language relatively cautious, but he insists ceasefire holds
Bernd Debusmann Jr
BBC White House reporter
Image source, Reuters
The language in this Pentagon news briefing has been relatively cautious, and slightly different than the approach during Operation Epic Fury earlier this year.
Notably, both Secretary Hegseth and Gen Caine insist that, despite exchanges of fire and "kinetic" incidents in the last several days, the ceasefire between the US and Iran continues to hold.
According to Hegseth, the low-level "harassment" by Iranian fast attack boats in the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz does not meet the threshold for a return to full-scale combat operations.
They took significant effort to make clear that in the eyes of the US, Project Freedom's goal of restoring freedom of navigation and commerce in the region are separate to both the blockade against Iranian ports and the wider conflict with Iran.
This is an important point for the administration to make domestically in the US, where polls have shown that the war has never been particularly popular.
We've already seen growing dissent from Republican lawmakers who worry about an open-ended conflict thousands of miles away.
It is also by no means clear yet that shipping companies - or the insurance firms that back them - will feel confident that Trump's "Project Freedom" can get ships through the passage without being attacked.
