U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth delivered a blunt and direct warning to Iran’s leadership Thursday: If talks fail, the United States is fully prepared to pound Iran “with more power than ever before.”

Speaking at a Pentagon press briefing, the defense secretary taunted the tottering Iranian regime.

“This is not a fair fight,” he said. While Iran is “digging out of bombed-out and devastated facilities, we are only getting stronger.”

As if talking directly to Iran’s leaders, he said, “We are reloading with more power than ever before, and … better intelligence than ever before, as you expose yourself with your movement to our watchful eye.”

The timing couldn’t be more urgent. With the U.S. attempting to restart talks, the deadline for the current ceasefire, set to expire next week on April 22, is fast approaching.

But while the U.S. is “maximally postured to restart combat operations,” Iran is floundering, its military devastated, unable to rebuild.

Hegseth also mocked the notion that Iran has instituted a real blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most important maritime chokepoint for the flow of oil and natural gas, as if to say, “You and what navy?”

The fact that Iran is threatening to fire missiles at ships sailing through the strait is not a blockade, Hegseth said. “That’s terrorism. That’s piracy.” To prove the point, he said that while the U.S. only needs to deploy 10 percent of the U.S. Navy to blockade Iran, Iran has zero navy to speak of. They can’t form a blockade without ships.

On the other hand, he said the U.S. is controlling which ships can come and go.

But while Iran’s navy sustained heavy damage during the U.S.-Israeli campaign against it, its smaller fleet of patrol and attack craft has survived, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Iran may not be entirely defanged — but the U.S. is prepared to finish the job.