Iran live updates: US blockade of Iran's Strait of Hormuz ports to begin Monday

Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, welcomed the ceasefire agreement but said the U.S. remains ready to continue combat operations "if called upon."

Caine honored the lives of the 13 service members killed in the operation before outlining U.S. achievements in Iran.

When ordering the beginning of the strikes, President Donald Trump set "three distinct military objectives: destroy ballistic missile and drawing drone capabilities, destroy the Iranian Navy and destroy their defense industrial base to ensure that Iran can reconstitute the ability to project power outside their borders."

Caine said the U.S. achieved the objectives.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth claimed the U.S. reached a "decisive military victory" in Iran under President Donald Trump at a press conference Wednesday.

"Iran begged for this ceasefire, and we all know it," Hegseth said.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the U.S. achieved all its objectives in Iran, leaving the regime with no choice but to cut a deal.

"America's military achieved every single objective on plan, on schedule, exactly as laid out from day one," Hegseth said.

Hegseth listed some of the Iranian leaders killed in the war and sites the U.S. destroyed.

"This new regime is out of options and out of time, so they cut a deal," Hegseth said. "We control their fate, not the other way around. That's why they came to the table."

Hegseth claimed Iran can "no longer build missiles, build rockets, build launchers or build UAVs. Their factories have been razed to the ground, set back in historic fashion."

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a post to X on Wednesday that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian "reaffirmed Iran's participation in the upcoming negotiations" with the U.S. planned for Friday in Islamabad.