Pentagon Press Secretary Sean Parnell Details Rationale For Striking 'Houthi Terrorists'

yesterday

At a Pentagon Press briefing on Monday, Pentagon Press Secretary Sean Parnell spoke about strikes on the Houthis over the weekend.

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Transcript

00:00So, thank you, everybody.

00:03Good afternoon.

00:04I hope everybody had a really great weekend.

00:06I wanted to say welcome to the new Pentagon Press Briefing Room.

00:12In line with the Secretary's vision to make this the most transparent Department of Defense

00:17in history, I gave you my personal commitment to make these briefings more routine.

00:22So today is the first of many, and considering the significant U.S. military operations as

00:29directed by the President this weekend, now seemed as appropriate time as any to fulfill

00:34that obligation to all of you.

00:36Additionally, I'm glad to be joined by Lieutenant General Alex Grinkevich, affectionately known

00:41as Grinch.

00:42Now, despite his call sign, he's actually a very pleasant and delightful human being,

00:49and we're glad to have him here at this podium.

00:51He's the Director of Operations of the Joint Staff.

00:53He's going to be able to provide a much richer context in the ongoing series of U.S. military

00:58operations against the Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen.

01:01So thank you for joining me, General.

01:03Thank you, sir.

01:04As many of you all know, we had an election back in November, and as a result of that

01:08election, an overwhelming mandate from the American people, there's a new president in

01:13the White House, and that, of course, is our President, President Donald Trump, who has

01:18immediately gotten to work on his America First agenda for the Department of Defense.

01:23Among those are four top-line points that I think are very important for those in this

01:27room to understand.

01:28Those are protecting the U.S. homeland, deterring China, and maintaining the ability to strike

01:35America's enemies anywhere in the world, and then also asking our allies to do more.

01:43We all know that this is a tall task, to be sure, so President Trump knew we needed a

01:49certain type of leader to bring the department into the 21st century, and he found that leader

01:54in now-Secretary Pete Hegseth.

01:57So in less than two months, Secretary Hegseth has taken monumental steps to return the Department

02:05of Defense to its core mission, which is warfighting, lethality, meritocracy.

02:11In a very, very short amount of time, Secretary Hegseth has restored the warrior ethos.

02:17He's declared DEI dead at the DOD.

02:21He's made the sovereignty of our borders a matter of national security, and we are refocused

02:26on training, fitness, and high standards across the board here in the Department of Defense.

02:33So before we get into our updates today, I just wanted to take this opportunity to say

02:43that this Department of Defense is committed to achieving our mission of maintaining the

02:49greatest fighting force the world has ever known and returning the Department of Defense

02:57back to the American warfighter and making it more transparent to the American taxpayer.

03:03So starting out, as I'm sure you've all seen over the weekend, U.S. Central Command Forces

03:10initiated a series of operations consisting of precision strikes against Iran-backed Houthi

03:16targets across Yemen to restore freedom of navigation and reestablish American deterrence.

03:24For years, the Houthis have targeted U.S. military ships and aircraft.

03:30They've hit commercial ships as well, including U.S. flagged vessels, and they threaten our

03:36personnel overseas.

03:38Houthi terrorists have launched missiles, one-way attack drones at U.S. warships over

03:43170 times and at commercial vessels 145 times since 2003.

03:52I know what it's like to be in a situation when you're under fire by the enemy, your

04:00life is at risk, the life of your friends and your battle buddies is at risk, and you're

04:05prohibited from returning fire.

04:08That's a hellish situation that I wouldn't wish on my worst adversary.

04:13It's a tough position that we put America's sons and daughters in.

04:17Under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth's leadership, we will defend our sons and daughters.

04:23If you shoot at American troops, there will be consequences.

04:29As President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have made clear, these actions by the Houthis will

04:34not be tolerated.

04:37In his first two days back at the White House, President Trump signed an order laying out

04:41a process to re-designate the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization after the

04:46previous administration revoked their designation within weeks of taking office.

04:52Under the previous administration, America's enemies were emboldened and billions in frozen

04:57funds were unlocked for Iran.

04:59With President Trump and Secretary Hegseth's leadership, an era of peace through strength

05:05is back.

05:07We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective.

05:13With that said, and this is a very important point, this is also not an endless offensive.

05:23This is not about regime change in the Middle East.

05:27This is about putting American interests first.

05:32As I said over the weekend, there is a very clear end state to this operation, and that

05:40begins the moment that the Houthis pledge to stop attacking our ships and putting American

05:46lives at risk.

05:48Shifting focus to Africa, at the request of the federal government of Somalia, U.S. Africa

05:55Command Forces conducted collective self-defense airstrikes against al-Shabaab on March 15th.

06:01The airstrikes occurred about 150 kilometers northeast of Mogadishu, Somalia, and AFRICOM's

06:08initial assessment is that enemy combatants were killed and that no civilians were injured

06:14or killed.

06:15And so U.S. forces will continue to partner with Somali armed forces to take the fight

06:20to these terrorists and degrade their ability to plan and conduct attacks that threaten

06:26the U.S. homeland, our forces, and civilians abroad.

Pentagon Press Secretary Sean Parnell Details Rationale For Striking 'Houthi Terrorists'

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