“I don’t have a message for them, and they’re not really a factor here, and our issue is not with them,” Hegseth said of Russia and China, both of whom have longstanding diplomatic and trade ties with Iran, while Moscow has military links to Tehran, APA reports, citing The Guardian.
The US defence secretary said the US focus on ending what he called “the nuclear ambitions of Iran”.
Both Russia and China have criticised the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, with Moscow saying it had seen no evidence that Tehran was developing nuclear weapons while Beijing called for an immediate halt to the attacks.