Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that the Iranian regime is making a "big mistake" by continuing toattack its neighborseven after the country's president apologized to bordering countries and vowed to stop.
As the Middle East countries of Qatar and the United Arab Emirates announced on Tuesday that they were under attack by Iran's ballistic missiles and drones, Hegseth said the Iranian strategy is driving its neighbors to side with the United States.
"Big mistake by the Iranian regime to start targeting its neighbors right away, exposing who they are and what they're all about -- indiscriminate targeting, flailing recklessly at the beginning," Hegseth said during a Pentagon press briefing Tuesday morning with Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Hegseth's comments came after President Donald Trump told Fox News Monday night that he was "surprised" that the Iranian regime was continuing to attack Arab countries in the region.
"One of the things that surprised me most was when they attacked countries that were not attacking them," Trump said. "When we attacked them, we knocked out 50% of their missiles. And if we didn't, it would have been a much harder fight."
But on Tuesday, Hegseth said, "We knew it was a possibility."
Since the conflict began, there have beenmixed messagesbetween the president and his top aides, giving different rationales for launching the war.
Trump has said at various times that Iran presented an "imminent threat" to U.S. allies and American interests in the region. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said the imminent threat was really fear of a retaliatory strike by Iran, knowing that Israel was poised to strike first with or without the United States.
Since the joint U.S.-Israel military operation began on Feb. 28, the governments of Jordan, Kuwait, Turkey, Iraq, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman have all reported being targeted by Iranian missile and drone strikes.
On Tuesday morning, authorities in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE, said in apost on Xthat an Iranian drone attack caused a fire in the Ruwais Industrial Complex, the site of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company facilities.
The UAE Ministry of Defense said in a separate social media post that its air defense detected eight ballistic missiles and 35 drones launched into its territory by Iran on Tuesday. The Ministry of Defense said eight of the nine missiles were destroyed and one fell into the sea, while 26 of the drones were intercepted.
The minister of defense for Qataralso announcedon Tuesday on X that "armed forces intercepted a missile attack which targeted the State of Qatar."
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The Qatari Ministry of Defense said five ballistic missiles from Iran were intercepted by Qatar's Armed Forces.
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"Our Armed Forces, by the grace of God, successfully intercepted and neutralized (5) ballistic missiles with no casualties or damages reported," the Ministry of Defense said in asocial media post.
On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a stern warning to the Iranians after an Iranian missile was launched at Turkey and was shot down by NATO defense forces.
"Despite our sincere warnings, provocative steps are being taken (by Iran), which will jeopardize the friendship of Turkey," Erdogan said during a press conference on Monday in Ankara.
In a readout of a phone conversation on Monday between Erdogan and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, made public by the Turkish president's office, Pezeshkian denied responsibility for the attacks on Turkey. According to the readout, Pezeshkian claimed the missiles that entered Turkey's airspace did not originate from Iran.
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The Iranian attacks on its neighbors have continued despite Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian's apology on Saturday for the attacks.
"I should apologize to the neighboring countries that were attacked by Iran, on my own behalf," Pezeshkian said in a statement. "From now on, they should not attack neighboring countries or fire missiles at them, unless we are attacked by those countries. I think we should solve this through diplomacy."
Following Pezeshkian's statement, Iran's military arm, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), also weighed in.
"Following the statements of the president, the armed forces once again declare that they respect the interests and national sovereignty of neighboring countries and, up to this point, have committed no aggression against them," an IRGC statement carried by state media said.
IRGC added, "However, should the previous hostile actions continue, all military bases and interests of criminal America and the fake Zionist regime on land, at sea, and in the air across the region will be considered primary targets and will come under the powerful and crushing strikes of the mighty armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran."
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But at Monday's Pentagon press briefing, Hegseth said the Iranian regime's attacks were "pushing those countries in our direction to support this effort, further alienating Iran."
"I can't say that we anticipated necessarily that's exactly how they would react, but we knew it was a possibility and I think it was a demonstration of the desperation of that regime then and that regime now," Hegseth said.
He added that Iran "still thinks their pathway out is to try to alienate their Arab partners even more, who've instead decided to come to us and have been willing to go on the offense."