US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Israel's strikes on oil facilities across Iran were "not our objective," while answering a question in a Pentagon press conference on Tuesday.
"Israel's been a really strong partner in this effort...where they have had different objectives, they've perused them," Hegseth said. "Ultimately we stayed focused on ours."
The defense secretary said the strikes on Iran's fuel depots "weren't our strikes...and that was not necessarily our objective."
Hegseth stressed, however, that the US is not "getting pulled in any direction" by Israel. "We are leading, president [Donald Trump] is leading."
US 'surprised by extent' of Israeli strikes on Iran fuel depots
Axios reported on Monday that Israel's Saturday strikes on some 30 fuel depots in Iran surprised US officials, despite being notified in advance about the targets.
The US was surprised by the extent of the Israeli strikes, Axios reported, citing American and Israeli sources.
Hegseth said earlier in the press conference that Tuesday would be the most intense day of strikes against Iran in the campaign so far. Speaking with reporters, Hegseth said Tuesday would bring the most fighter jets and bombers against Iran.
"We will not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated," he said, adding that this most intense day of strikes comes alongside the lowest number of missiles fired by Iran in a 24-hour period.
The US's objectives are "straightforward" and being carried out with "ruthless precision," Hegseth stated. The three objectives are to destroy Iran's missile stockpiles, launchers, and defense industrial base, including the ability to produce missiles; secondly, to destroy Iran's navy; and thirdly, to permanently deny Iran from procuring nuclear weapons "forever," he added.
Hegseth also stated that Iran's regime has, for 47 years, murdered US military personnel and civilians, including via terror proxies and regional allies.
"Now they [Iran] race toward a nuclear bomb to hold the world hostage. The Iranians have targeted and killed thousands of my American brothers. That race to a nuclear bomb - President Trump will never allow it, not now, not ever, Not on our watch," he stated.
Iran's "Mullahs are desperate and scrambling," he continued.
"Like the terrorist cowards they are, they fire missiles from schools and hospitals, deliberately targeting innocents because they know their military is being systematically degraded and annahilated," Hegseth said, adding that Iran's neighbors and former Gulf allies have "abandoned them," and that Iran's terror proxies - Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Hamas - are "either broken, ineffective, or on the sidelines. Iran stands alone, and they are badly losing."
Hegseth also responded to a question on the reports that a US Tomahawk missile was the cause of the strike on a girls' school in Minab, Iran, that killed at least 175 people at the beginning of the strikes.
Hegseth stated that the US military takes more steps than anybody to mitigate civilian casualties, and that Iran has embedded itself among civilian locations as well as targeting civilians in their attacks.
Tobias Holcman and Reuters contributed to this report.