Iran's Revolutionary Guards hit back with a new threat against US companies in the region starting on Wednesday. It listed 18 businesses including Microsoft, Google , Apple, Intel, IBM, Tesla and Boeing .
Hegseth, who reported he visited US troops in the Middle East on Saturday, said President Donald Trump was willing to make a deal with Iran to end the war. Talks were ongoing and gaining strength, but the United States was prepared to continue the war if Iran did not comply, he said.
"We have more and more options, and they have less ... in only one month we set the terms, the upcoming days will be decisive," Hegseth said in Washington on Tuesday.
"Iran knows that, and there's almost nothing they can militarily do about it."
Responding to the threat against American corporate interests, a White House official said the US military was "prepared to curtail any attacks".
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi on Tuesday said he has been receiving direct messages from US special envoy Steve Witkoff but they do not constitute negotiations, Qatar's Al Jazeera TV cited him as saying.
The messages include threats or exchanged views delivered through "friends", he said. The month-long conflict has spread across the region, killing thousands of people, disrupting energy supplies and threatening to send the global economy into a tailspin.
Trump on Monday threatened to obliterate Iran's energy plants if it does not agree to a peace deal and open the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for global oil shipments that has effectively been blocked by Iran.
The US president on Tuesday criticised countries that have not helped the US war effort, such as Britain. In a social media post, he said that in response to the global fuel shortage, these countries should buy energy from the US or find "some delayed courage, go to the strait and just TAKE IT".
Pope Leo on Tuesday urged Trump to look for an "off-ramp" to the war, in an unusual direct appeal from the pontiff to the president.
"Hopefully he's looking for a way to decrease the amount of violence," the pope told journalists outside his residence near Rome.
Iran on Monday struck a fully loaded oil tanker off Dubai and set it ablaze. The fire was brought under control.
It was Iran's latest attack on merchant vessels in the Gulf or in the Strait of Hormuz since the US and Israel launched the war on February 28.
General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in Washington the US was further degrading and destroying Iran's capabilities.
He said the US military was continuing to strike key manufacturing and research sites and had taken out over 150 Iranian naval vessels. Hegseth said US strikes were causing widespread desertions in Iran.
With attacks showing no sign of easing, Pakistan is seeking to mediate in the war. The foreign ministers of China and Pakistan on Tuesday called for an immediate ceasefire, urging peace talks to be held as soon as possible after they met in Beijing.
Iran has remained defiant despite heavy US and Israeli attacks for the past month.
The Israeli military on Tuesday said it completed a wave of strikes targeting 20 weapons manufacturing sites and a research and development site in Iran.
The war has continued to spread, with Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen entering the war by firing at Israel. Turkey on Monday reported that a ballistic missile launched from Iran had entered Turkish airspace before being shot down.
with AP
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