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Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday that the US may never reach a nuclear agreement with Iran.

Getting into it: Wright made the comments across a Sunday morning round of interviews on ABC, CBS and CNN. Asked on “This Week” whether a deal was in sight, he said, “There may not be a nuclear agreement. It may be simply destroying their capabilities to do it. An agreement may await a next administration in Iran. We simply don’t know that.”

Pressed on how the US prevents an Iranian bomb without a deal, he said the bombing campaign is already eroding that capability. “We are degrading their capacity to develop nuclear weapons and ultimately to deliver them, if they develop them,” he said. “It is a 47-year-long effort. This is not trivial, but the United States will get the job done.”

He was more direct on CBS about what the naval campaign is for. “The biggest role of our military in the region right now is to stop the export of any Iranian crude or crude-related products, natural gas, whatever,” Wright said. “We are strangling their economy to try to bring either a change in policy from the existing regime or a new regime.” He also said Trump’s preference is always a negotiated settlement and that the US remains open to a deal.

Wright would not say the Strait of Hormuz is safe. Asked repeatedly by CNN’s Dana Bash whether a company could send a tanker through, he said only that it could if it worked with the US Navy, and that traffic is below prewar levels. He put current transit at roughly two thirds of that, a figure that includes oil moving through pipelines. He also declined to forecast gas prices, telling Bash he did not have an opinion on where they are headed before guessing they would fall.

This all comes after US Central Command struck three Iranian crude oil tankers Saturday in retaliation for IRGC ballistic missiles fired at two Navy warships. Two were permanently disabled, one off Kharg Island and one near Jask, and a third was hit in the Gulf of Oman. No American ships were struck and no personnel were harmed.

In a statement, CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper said, “Let the message to the IRGC be clear: If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost, taking out three of yours.” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth added, “It’s simple: if Iran shoots at U.S. ships, we will destroy (and sink) their oil tankers.”