Ex-CIA Chief Leon Panetta Says Renewed Iran Conflict Puts U.S. in ‘Forever War in the Middle East’

Former CIA Director Leon Panetta warned Thursday the United States is entering into a “forever war in the Middle East” after renewing the conflict with Iran.

While speaking with CNN’s Brianna Keilar on CNN News Central, Panetta admitted that recent strikes mean “we’re seeing is kind of the worst elements of a forever war in the Middle East, which means that we just attack a number of targets, and Iran strikes back at targets involving our bases in the Middle East. Both are hitting each other.”

“Where are we headed here?” he continued. “The options don’t look very good. It’s either continuing this kind of forever war. [Or] It’s trying to arrive at some kind of ceasefire, but ceasefires have been very weak in terms of maintaining them,  largely because, frankly, we don’t have a clear position on the Strait of Hormuz. That’s our greatest leverage right now, and it continues to be probably the primary element that is upsetting almost every approach to trying to resolve these issues.”

The U.S. and Iran also have more issues on the table.

“And we haven’t even begun to get to the 60-day negotiations that are supposed to deal with nuclear, deal with missiles, deal with proxies, deal with other areas that need to be covered,” Panetta added. “And so right now, very frankly, it is very difficult to identify what are we trying to achieve. I mean, if I were recommending something to the president, I, I would say as long as the Strait of Hormuz remains in the control of Iran, we will never have any kind of ceasefire. We will never be able to resolve these issues.”

“And I think the president has a tough decision to make, whether he’s going to take control of the Strait of Hormuz and remove that leverage from Iran,” he concluded. “That’s that’s not easy. It will involve casualties. It will involve military action. But I do not see any kind of clear path here, as long as Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz.”

President Donald Trump launched a fresh wave of attacks at Iran Wednesday evening, hours after he said the Memorandum of Understanding was over.

Watch above via CNN.

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