WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used a Pentagon ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks to connect the administration’s military campaign against Iran with the nation’s continuing fight against terrorism. The ceremony took place Friday at the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed in the 2001 attacks. Nearly 3,000 people died across New York, Washington and Pennsylvania that day. Hegseth said the United States still faces adversaries seeking to harm Americans and framed the Iran conflict as part of that broader struggle. “The struggle against evil continued and it continues now,” Hegseth said. He warned that enemies were plotting to weaken the United States and kill its citizens, citing both foreign and domestic Islamic extremists. The defense secretary also presented the past six months of fighting as a campaign that had severely weakened Iran. He said U.S. forces had killed Iranian leaders, destroyed the country’s air force and dismantled its air defenses. “We are ensuring that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon,” Hegseth said. “The economic pressure tightens every day. We control the Strait of Hormuz. We will finish this fight.” Trump’s remarks focused more heavily on the victims of the attacks and the national unity that followed. He also recognized U.S. troops serving abroad, while making Iran’s nuclear program a central part of his message. “We salute the service members working right now to ensure the world’s number one sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran, will never ever have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. The decision to highlight an active war during a memorial for the Sept. 11 victims placed the administration’s current foreign-policy agenda alongside an event traditionally centered on remembrance and mourning. The president and defense secretary did not provide additional details about the military campaign or explain what would bring the conflict to an end.