Hegseth sends strong message to Iran and Houthis: ‘You will pay’

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent a message to Iran on Wednesday night, warning the country that it will pay consequences for its “LETHAL” support of the Houthis terrorist organization.

“We see your LETHAL support to The Houthis. We know exactly what you are doing,” Hegseth said in a post on X. “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’s post warning of military force is unusual for a defense secretary to make, especially so explicitly, though it appears to be in response to an incident earlier this week in the Red Sea that caused a U.S. fighter jet to fall off an aircraft carrier.

$70M NAVY F-18 FIGHTER JET FALLS INTO RED SEA OFF THE USS HARRY S TRUMAN

On Monday, a Houthi drone forced the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier to make an evasive maneuver, which some believe caused an F-18 Super Hornet worth $67 million and a tow tractor to fall off the carrier and into the Red Sea.

The plane was actively under tow in a hangar bay when the crew lost control of the aircraft. Both the jet and tow went overboard and were lost in the sea, the Navy said.

The aircraft carrier has been operating in the Red Sea since September, where it has launched strikes against Houthi terrorists in Yemen.

The Iran-backed group claimed it has attacked the USS Harry S. Truman and its accompanying warships in recent weeks, as well as merchant vessels sailing in the area.

NAVY DEPLOYS ANOTHER HOUTHI-FIGHTING WARSHIP TO NEW US SOUTHERN BORDER MISSION

Trump elevated a military campaign against the terrorist group on March 15, and airstrikes have been launched against Houthi targets every day since then.

After his post on Wednesday, Hegseth then retweeted a Truth Social post by President Donald Trump from March 17.

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“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,” Trump posted. “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.

“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!”