Cost mounting for United States in war with Iran

The US military said it completed the 11th night of strikes

on Iran early Wednesday.

A war plane takes off from the deck of a US Navy ship

for the eleventh night of strikes on Iran targeting aircraft hangars

and drone storage sites.

The latest barrage came after US President Donald Trump messaged

that strikes would be intensifying as he says Iran are trying to 'constitute a site'

for nuclear weapons.

Donald Trump US President said

They can't have a nuclear weapon right now

it would take them years to produce it.

And we will absolutely attack. You know the new site they are talking about.

I mean how about these people, they're in this because

of nuclear weapons they are possibly trying to reconstitute a site. We'll hit that site.

This as President Trump pledged to help Lebanon

during a White House meeting on Tuesday with the country's leader Joseph Aoun,

who came to push for long term calm after months of war

between Israel and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah.

Joseph Aoun President of Lebanon said

I would like to thank our President Trump and his team

for the historic visit and for the historic achievement that we did together,

by signing the framework with the ultimate objective of ending

the state of hostilities between Lebanon and Israel forever.

Meanwhile US Secretary of State Marco Rubio

spoke at the ASEAN Post-Ministerial Conference in the Philippines

on Wednesday, starting with statements on Iran.

Marco Rubio US Secretary of State said

We are open-minded and always willing to engage in

negotiated settlements of differences.

And that remains true in the case of Iran.

Unfortunately, as of now, despite their direct outreaches -

and Iran has been reaching out to the United States,

both directly and indirectly, to engage in talks about settling the differences -

with regards to what's happening in that part of the world,

unfortunately, so far, even though we have reached agreements,

they have not kept their commitments

the problem we're having right now is that they're not serious about talks.

Back in Washington, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth

faced questions and protests Tuesday over the growing cost of waging war with Iran.

Pete Hegseth Secretary of Defense said

This request is an urgent, necessary injection of resources

to address the immediate needs of our department.

The supplemental funding request is not a substitute.

Hegseth was then interrupted by protesters against the war.

90 million people, your hands are bloody.

He said the cost of war so far was estimated at 37.5 billion US dollars.

He went on to say Trump proposed 1.5 trillion-US dollars

defense budget, a generational investment in the military,

adding "without these funds, we face critical shortfall."

Not surprisingly, Senate Democrats were critical of the money now being

asked to support the military.