Confident of air supremacy, US sends B-52 bombers over Iran
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An Air Force B-52 Stratofortress takes off in support of Operation Epic Fury during the Iran war.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Greg Jaffe, John Ismay, Helene Cooper and Thomas Fuller
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WASHINGTON - The United States has achieved such unchallenged control of Iran’s skies that it is flying B-52 bombers directly over Iranian territory for the first time since the war began, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters at a Pentagon briefing on March 31.
But Iran still retains the ability to retaliate against neighbouring countries with missiles and drones, he added.
“They will shoot some missiles; we will shoot them down,” Mr Hegseth said alongside General Dan Caine, the Joint Chiefs’ chair, in the first public briefing on the war in nearly two weeks.
The United States was “closer than ever before to winning”, Mr Hegseth asserted, but he did not give a time frame for the end of the war, saying that was up to President Donald Trump and the negotiations he is pursuing with Iran.
“They are very real, they are ongoing, they are active and I think gaining strength,” Mr Hegseth said of talks to end the war.
Iran has publicly denied taking part in direct negotiations with the United States. Mr Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, said on March 31 that Iran had not responded to a 15-point proposal sent by the United States, and it had not submitted any proposal of its own.
The Pentagon’s assessment of the war came as the price of gasoline in the United States crossed above an average of US$4 (S$5.1) a gallon for the first time since 2022, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A month of war has caused oil and natural gas prices to soar and stocks to slump.
But on international markets on March 31, the price of oil fell sharply to just above US$100 a barrel, and stocks surged in a broad rally that seemed to signal investors’ hopes for and end to the fighting. Optimistic statements by Mr Trump and top members of his administration have repeatedly lifted stocks and suppressed fuel prices, but the effect has been temporary.
Addressing the current surge in energy prices caused by the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, Mr Trump suggested in a social media post on March 31 that other countries “build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT”.
Meanwhile, Israel on March 31 offered its clearest indication yet that it intends to occupy a large portion of southern Lebanon even after its ground invasion ends, a development with dire consequences for more than 500,000 Lebanese. NYTIMES
