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WASHINGTON: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers Wednesday that the Pentagon was providing possible options to President Donald Trump as he decides next steps on Iran but would not say whether the military was planning to assist with Israeli strikes, an action that could risk dragging America into a wider war in the Middle East.
Hegseth was on Capitol Hill for the last of his series of often combative hearings before lawmakers, who have pressed him on everything from a ban on transgender troops to his use of a Signal chat to share sensitive military plans earlier this year.
In questioning before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Hegseth said “maximum force protection” was being provided for US troops in the Middle East and that it is Trump’s decision whether to provide Israel a ”bunker buster” bomb to strike at the core of Iran’s nuclear program, which would require US pilots flying a B-2 stealth bomber. He would not indicate what the US may do next.
“My job — our job, the chairman and I — at all times is to make sure the president has options and is informed of what those options might be and what the ramifications of those options might be,” Hegseth said, referring to Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who was testifying alongside him.
The US has shifted significant numbers of refueling tanker and fighter aircraft to position them to be able to respond to the escalating conflict, such as supporting possible evacuations, or airstrikes. Hegseth said this week that was done to protect US personnel and air bases.
Hegseth, who is appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, has spent vast amounts of time during his first months in office promoting the social changes he’s making at the Pentagon. He’s been far less visible in the administration’s more critical international security crises and negotiations involving Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Gaza and Iran.

BERLIN: Maritime rescue organizations said Wednesday they had pulled more than 175,000 people from the Mediterranean over the past 10 years, as waves of migrants sought to use the dangerous sea route to reach Europe.

The group of 21 NGOS active in the region estimated that at least 28,932 people had died while trying to cross the sea since 2015.

The majority had died in the central Mediterranean – waters between Libya, Tunisia, Italy and Malta – Mirka Schaefer of German NGO SOS Humanity told a Berlin press conference.

In that area, the equivalent of five adults and one child lost their lives every day over the past decade, she said.

The number of unrecorded cases was likely to be “significantly higher,” she added.

Of the 21 organizations currently engaged in maritime rescue in the region, 10 of them are based in Germany. Between them the groups operate 15 boats, four sail ships and four planes.

The organizations have frequently clashed with authorities over their rescue operations, which were launched as Europe’s migration crisis broke out in 2015, when hundreds of thousands headed to the continent, mostly from the Middle East.

In Italy the current government has vowed to end crossings and attacked NGOs for creating a “pull factor” that encourages departures, something migration observers say is unproven.

Giorgia Meloni’s hard-right government has passed laws requiring rescue ships to return to a designated port, a measure NGOs say is contrary to maritime law.

“The pressure on us is growing,” Schaefer said, criticizing a lack of support from the German government.

The rescue organizations were calling on Berlin to support “an effective, coordinated sea rescue program, fully funded by the EU,” Sea Watch spokeswoman Giulia Messmer said at the press conference.

The proposal, which had been sent to the German government and to the European Commission, called for the EU to spend between €108 million-€240 million ($124 million-$276 million) a year on rescue patrols and arrival centers.