He said the U.S. mission is to “literally eliminate every piece of military hardware that exists in Iran that an American can reach and touch anywhere in the Middle East.”
“That’s what we’re doing now so that we don’t get hit by anything, a surface-to-surface missile or a surface-to-air missile or whatever, certainly not with a nuclear tip, but also with any other tip.”
A screenshot from a video released by US Central Command shows smoke and dust rising after an explosion at an unknown location, in this image obtained from social media released on February 28, 2026. (US Central Command via X via Reuters)
Mast paid tribute to the three Americans who died in the operation. “These soldiers understood the dangers of their profession. They went there, performed their duty to defend the United States of America, and I couldn’t be more proud than to thank them for their service, and I’m proud to be their brother in arms.”
He emphasized that the scope and duration of the operation will be determined by the administration. “Ending this militarily for the United States is on our terms,” he said.
Mast strongly pushed back against claims that Israel had dragged the United States into war with Iran, saying the Trump administration pursued diplomacy first and set a deadline before turning to military action.
“Israel has not dragged the United States of America anywhere,” he said in the interview. “The United States, number one, has entered into diplomatic negotiations with Iran to say: end your nuclear program, end your ballistic missile program and your support for these proxies that are continually attacking the United States of America.”
OMAR, SQUAD ROUTE TO TRUMP IN RESPONSE TO IRAN STRIKE: ‘ILLEGAL REGIME CHANGE WAR’
The largest aircraft carrier in the world, the USS Gerald R. Ford, steams alongside USNS Laramie. (U.S. Navy Central Command/U.S. 6th Fleet/presentation via Reuters)
“Everything is part of that debate and that conversation. When should something be done? How should something be done? Clearly, the United States of America and President Trump, Secretary Hegseth, Secretary Rubio, our Director of Intelligence, our Director of our CIA, John Ratcliffe, are working to put all the resources in place so that the negotiating tool to end the literal threat of Iran was part of that.”
“It wasn’t by accident that we snapped our fingers and had the Ford carrier group there, the Lincoln carrier group. That took time,” he added. “The diplomatic approach was preferred. That’s why it started with that rather than starting with a military strike. And what I can tell you about those negotiations, speaking directly to the individuals I just mentioned, is that Iran found itself in this extremely selfish situation, unwilling to really discuss anything related to ending their nuclear program,” he said.
IRAN Vows ‘Decisive’ Self-Defense at UN AFTER TRUMP KILLS SUPREME LEADER IN OPERATION EPIC FURY
Smoke rises over Tehran after the Israeli army launched a second wave of airstrikes on February 28, 2026. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Even after the United States offered to finance nuclear materials for a civilian energy program if Iran agreed not to pursue armaments, they didn’t want to. They didn’t want to talk about ending their ballistic missile program.”
Looking ahead, Mast suggested the conflict could reshape Iran’s political future. He described the regime’s formal succession process, which “starts with this three-member body and eventually moves into this 88-member assembly that would go there and pick the next leader,” and named potential contenders including “the son of the ayatollah, grandson of the ayatollah” and “a very hardline cleric named Arafi, who is very closely linked to the IRGC.”
But he also raised the possibility of broader unrest.
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Representative Brian Mast on Capitol Hill, May 21, 2025. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)
“That assumes that there is no uprising, where the people, the millions and millions of people across Iran, who have just been brutally tortured and oppressed, do not decide that there is another way,” Mast said.
“We want to see a change, a turning of the page on what Iran has done.”
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