OREANDA-NEWS US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth tried to justify attacks on Iran's missile infrastructure by seeking to deprive Tehran of the ability to create nuclear weapons, despite the fact that the authorities of the Islamic Republic have repeatedly stressed that they do not seek to develop them.

"From the very beginning, we stated that the primary task is to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons," Hegseth said during a briefing, answering a journalist's question about the need for strikes on Tehran's missile base with Washington's stated goal of destroying the Islamic Republic's nuclear potential.