"You will pay the consequence": Hegseth threatens Iran for backing Houthis

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a stern warning to the Iranian regime on Wednesday via his X account, citing Tehran’s continued support for the Houthi terrorist organization in Yemen. "We see your LETHAL support to The Houthis. We know exactly what you are doing. You know very well what the U.S. Military is capable of — and you were warned. You will pay the CONSEQUENCE at the time and place of our choosing," Hegseth wrote.

The message from U.S. President Donald Trump's administration official came just days after a Houthi-launched drone forced the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman to execute a severe evasive maneuver. According to multiple media reports, the incident caused an F-18 fighter jet—valued at $67 million—to fall from the carrier into the Red Sea, resulting in its destruction. The incident followed 47 consecutive days of U.S. military airstrikes on Houthi targets, which intensified their operations in the region after the Israeli Army declared war on the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in response to its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

Trump's message

Following his message on X, Hegseth shared Republican President Donald Trump's post from March 17 on Truth Social. In the post, Trump declared: "Let nobody be fooled! The hundreds of attacks being made by Houthi, the sinister mobsters and thugs based in Yemen, who are hated by the Yemeni people, all emanate from, and are created by, IRAN. Any further attack or retaliation by the ‘Houthis’ will be met with great force, and there is no guarantee that the force will stop there."

In the same message, Trump said that, "Iran has played the ‘innocent victim’ of rogue terrorists from which they’ve lost control, but they haven’t lost control. They’re dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, ‘Intelligence.’ Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!"