Trump Moves High-Stakes Meeting Back to White House

Tehran is “hedging its bets” and attempting to ramp up pressure on the U.S. amid ongoing negotiations.

“Clearly the Iranians are trying to hedge their bets here and put more pressure on the U.S., and what we saw here was CENTCOM detecting that and then taking military action to address it very, very quickly,” Votel said during a Tuesday appearance on Fox News’ “America Reports.”

Votel praised CENTCOM’s swift response as an “effective use of military force,” while noting that both military and diplomatic efforts will likely be needed moving forward.

The comments came after CENTCOM said U.S. forces carried out “self-defense strikes” in southern Iran on Monday,