US reimposed

US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Tuesday (US local time) said the United States has reimposed an effectively impenetrable blockade against Iran and asserted that Tehran is at its weakest military point in decades, as he testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the Trump administration's request for a USD 1.5 trillion defence budget. Hegseth, appeared in front of the Senate Appropriations Committee alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, and said, Our blockade has been reimposed and is effectively impenetrable... a lot of the strikes that Admiral Cooper and CENTCOM have been undertaking are taking away Iran's ability to see and sense a way in the Strait of Hormuz, which has tactical benefits for us. Responding to Hegseth's remarks, Senator John Hoeven said, And that's what this funding is about. This funding is about making sure that we and our allies can operate in the Strait of Hormuz, which helps bring down energy prices for every single American consumer, and that we force Iran to meet our objectives. He termed the demand of USD 1.5 trillion in the defence budget as a generational investment and said, This is a peace through strength package. That is what USD 1.5 trillion has always been about. This is about a generational investment. He said the United States must be able to execute operations at speed, scale, with autonomy and artificial intelligence not only to continue its efforts in the Strait of Hormuz but also to deter adversaries like Russia and China from getting involved in future contingencies. The Secretary of War also claimed that Iran's military capability had been significantly degraded. Iran is at the weakest point militarily it has ever been in, in the past decade. Certainly maybe in 47 years as they've gathered effectively a terror army, Hegseth said. That terror army was built to try to create conventional capability to defend against a pursuit of nuclear weapons, which meant thousands of ballistic……