After two US troops killed, Energy Secretary Wright says 'mission' in Iran will continue
After eight consecutive days of U.S. strikes on Iran, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday that the United States' "mission will go on" until President Donald Trump achieves his war goals.
"The president's mission is essential for peace in the Middle East and peace in the world, and that is to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons, and to degrade their ability to terrorize their neighbors and the world and global commerce. So yes, this mission will go on until the mission is done," Wright said in an interview on ABC News' "This Week."
The latest round of strikes came Saturday after U.S. Central Command announced that two American service members were killed and one other was missing after an Iranian attack in Jordan.
"This Week" co-anchor Jonathan Karl pressed Wright on whether the president planned to retaliate further in response to those deaths.
"It's tragic to lose American lives, but this is a mission that will save countless lives going forward," Wright said.
Since the war started in late February, 16 U.S. troops have been killed, and hundreds have been wounded, according to the Department of Defense.
After reaching a ceasefire in April, both U.S. and Iranian leaders in mid-June signed a preliminary deal to extend that ceasefire by 60 days while negotiations on Iran's nuclear program. But that ceasefire has since completely fallen apart, with both sides declaring the memorandum of understanding effectively dead.
When the war began, administration officials, including Wright, said the operation would be weeks long -- not months.
In a March 15 interview on "This Week," Wright said, "I think that this conflict will certainly come to the end in the next few weeks. Could be sooner than that."
"We are now nearly five months into this war. How does it end? When does it end?" Karl asked.
"Well, the plan -- we needed four to six weeks for military actions. They went for five and a half weeks. We did a pause to try to get an agreement with the Iranian people to allow oil to flow without them attacking it. They've proven unwilling to do that. And we've pivoted," Wright said. "Now what we're doing is assuring that -- that oil and gas and other products can flow through the Strait of Hormuz, with or without Iranian cooperation."
Wright said that oil is continuing to flow through the Strait of Hormuz.
"The seven-day trailing average right now is just under seven million barrels a day flowing through the waterway and just under seven million barrels a day additional flow through the bypass pipelines. So, we're at a little under 14 million barrels a day from the Arabian Gulf region. That's two-thirds of preconflict traffic, dramatically up from where we were back in March when I was last on your show," he said.
But data from maritime tracking firms conflicts with Wright's statement. On Friday, the firm Kpler said that only eight vessels were confirmed to have transited the strait on Thursday, which it said was the lowest level in three weeks.
Wright said that information was wrong.
"Almost all the public data I've seen is incorrect," he said. "We count the volume of oil that goes through. The ship numbers are down more dramatically. But, of course, we're flowing larger tankers now to keep the world markets as well supplied as we can."
In a separate interview on "This Week," Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner blasted the administration's handling of the war.
"I see no path in the short term how the Strait is going to be settled. This war of choice has been a disaster. It has been a disaster militarily. It has been a disaster in terms of how we're viewed around the world. It has been a disaster to our friends and allies who have questioned whether we will keep our promises," Warner said. "I'm anxious if it takes a classic Donald Trump move, declare victory tomorrow and be done. But the continuation of this war at this pace will be a continuing disaster."
