The Pentagon and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth signaled on Monday that the United States does not plan to strike Iran as President Donald Trump prepares to meet with the National Security Council (NSC) at the White House.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Fox News on Monday that President Donald Trump was still aiming for a nuclear deal with Iran even as hostilities have escalated between U.S. ally Israel and Tehran,

The US president said his patience was “wearing thin” and boasted Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was an “easy target”, in a series of posts made a day after he left the G7 summit in Canada early to focus on the war.

The work will be primarily performed in and near Washington with an estimated completion date of July 2026, the Pentagon said.

The $200 million contract is for work with the department’s Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office.

OpenAI has won a $200 million contract for a pilot program aimed at helping the US Defense Department determine how it could use artificial intelligence for a range of administrative and security tasks.