Pete Hegseth insists Iran ceasefire still holding despite skirmishes

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on May 5, 2026

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Tuesday insisted the ceasefire with Iran is holding firm despite exchanges of fire between the two nations as they seek to enforce dueling blockades of the strategic Straits of Hormuz.

After a day of attacks by both sides, Hegseth said the skirmishes don’t amount to a resumption of combat and claimed that the effort to reopen shipping in and out of the Persian Gulf is separate from the war with Iran.

“The ceasefire is not over. Ultimately, this is a separate and distinct project,” the Pentagon chief said.

Gen. Dan Caine, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, detailed nearly a dozen Iranian attacks on U.S. forces and shipping, but said they don’t add up to a return to war.

“All below the threshold for major combat operations,” Caine said.

Hegseth pushed back against a reporter who questioned if Donald Trump “capitulated” by backing off his demands for Iran’s “unconditional surrender” and call for a popular uprising in Iran.

“The president hasn’t capitulated on anything,” Hegseth said. “He holds all the cards. We maintain the upper hand and Project Freedom only strengthens that hand.”

The Trump administration appears to be distinguishing between the war and reopening the Straits of Hormuz in part to skirt seeking congressional approval under the War Powers Act once the conflict passed the 60-day mark.

Democrats and some Republican critics of the war are pushing for the Senate and House to take action to invoke the act, but GOP leaders have so far succeeded in blocking them.

From a military standpoint, the ceasefire seemed to be mostly holding even after the United Arab Emirates said Iran fired missiles and drones at it.

Iran’s powerful parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf accused the U.S. of undermining the truce by trying to end Iran’s stranglehold on the chokepoint Straits of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil supply typically passes.

He warned that Tehran will respond by flexing its muscle.

“We know full well that the continuation of the status quo is intolerable for America; while we have not even begun yet,” Ghalibaf said.

The U.S. military said two American-flagged merchant ships successfully transited the strait on Monday, the first day of the effort, and that it fired on Iranian forces, sinking six small boats that were targeting vessels.

Iran’s effective closure of the strait has sent gas prices skyrocketing for American consumers, rattled the global economy and proved a major strategic advantage for Tehran.

Negotiations for a broader peace deal appear to have stalled after the U.S. rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the straits and end the fighting while negotiating curbs on its nuclear program.