New Delhi, March 22 -- US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, on Sunday (local time), defended the US strikes on Iran, saying "sometimes you have to escalate to de-escalate," NBC News reported.

His remarks followed a post by US President Donald Trump on Truth Social, where he gave Iran 48 hours to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and warned that Tehran's power plants could be obliterated if it failed to act.

Backing Trump's warning, Bessent said this was the only kind of messaging Iran responds to. His comments were in reference to the US and Israel's Operation Epic Fury and Operation Rising Lion, launched in late February to strike Iranian infrastructure, shortly after Washington and Tehran concluded another round of talks on Iran's nuclear p...