By 
(AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers Wednesday that the Pentagon was providing options to President Donald Trump as he decides next steps on Iran but would not say whether the military was planning to assist with Israeli strikes, an action that could risk dragging America into a wider war in the Middle East.
Hegseth was on Capitol Hill for the last of a series of combative hearings before lawmakers, who have pressed him on everything from a ban on transgender troops to his use of a Signal chat to share sensitive military plans earlier this year.
In questioning before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Hegseth said “maximum force protection” was being provided for U.S. troops in the Middle East and that it is Trump’s decision whether to provide Israel a ”bunker buster” bomb to strike at the core of Iran’s nuclear program, which would require U.S. pilots flying a B-2 stealth bomber. He would not indicate what the U.S. may do next.
“They should have made a deal. President Trump’s word means something — the world understands that,” Hegseth said of Trump pressing Iran to agree to a deal during U.S. talks over Tehran’s rapidly developing nuclear program.
“And at the Defense Department, our job is to stand ready and prepared with options. And that’s precisely what we’re doing,” Hegseth said.
Options for Israel
Hegseth said the U.S. military was readying options for Trump, noting that it’s his job to provide the president with options and what the ramifications could be.
Trump would not say Wednesday whether he has decided to order a U.S. strike on Iran, a move that Tehran warned anew would be greeted with stiff retaliation.
Israel has struck multiple Iranian nuclear facilities in the past several days, but one of its key uranium production sites, Fordo, requires the deep penetrating munition from the U.S.
“I may do it, I may not do it,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I mean, nobody knows what I’m going to do.”
Democratic senators urged caution.
Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the committee’s ranking Democrat, warned that “the Trump administration must take urgent steps to prevent a wider war.” He said Israel launching the attack on Iran against “against the urging of the president threatens the stability of the entire region and the safety of American stationed there.”
The U.S. has shifted significant numbers of refueling tanker and fighter aircraft to position them to be able to respond to the escalating conflict, such as by supporting possible evacuations or conducting airstrikes. Hegseth said this week that was done to protect U.S. personnel and airbases
