Jack Keane Predicts Trump’s Iran Pivot Won’t Work, They Are ‘Asking Us to Surrender’

Retired General Jack Keane, a Fox News senior strategic analyst, warned on Monday that President Donald Trump’s negotiations with Iran are not working, arguing that Iran is “asking us to surrender” and they will “get more violent” to damage Trump politically ahead of the midterms.

“And with that, we bring in retired General Jack Keane, Fox News Senior Strategic Analyst General Keane, great to have you with us this morning. Let’s start with what President Trump said about — you know, sort of eyeing what’s going on and putting more of a focus on economic pressure — and believing that, over time, that will force them to the table and force an outcome that is favorable to the United States. Do you agree with that?” asked anchor Martha MacCallum.

“Well, I think when you take a look at the evidence, we’ve been at it four months now. We went through a ceasefire on April 7th, largely because the Iranians shut down the Strait of Hormuz and they were willing to negotiate about that very subject. And then we imposed a naval blockade on April 13th, and obviously we were trying to put economic pressure on them as well. So we’ve been at this for four months over the Strait of Hormuz, applying economic pressure, and now we’re in a diplomatic phase with them, with two issues on the table: the Strait of Hormuz opening up, and also the nuclear enterprise, which is being kicked down the road for negotiations,” Keane replied, adding:

I think at times we underestimate where the Iranians really are in terms of where their head is at. We have a tendency to look at them and ask: What is the impact of the blockade doing to the economy? How much money are they losing every single day, every single month? Where is their currency in terms of its value? What’s their inflation rate?

These are all norms that we apply to ourselves, and then we look at them and say, “My, this is absolutely devastating to them — at some point they’re going to fold their hand.” But you’ve got to understand where this regime is really coming from, and the people who are running it. They have an ideology that they’re holding to. They absolutely believe, right now, that they have the upper hand. I know there are people who don’t want to admit that, but that’s where the Iranians are. I’m not saying that’s what they are — I don’t believe it myself — but it’s irrelevant. They believe it.

They believe the Strait of Hormuz is a strategic asset, and they are not going to bargain that away. Even if — even if — they gave in to the concessions we want them to make over the Strait, we already have evidence that they won’t comply with it, because two presidents signed the deal, and days later the Iranians didn’t comply with it.

So, where they are: they will not give up the Strait of Hormuz unless we take it back by force. No amount of economic pressure on them, I think, will bend them to do that. They don’t care about the economic peril their people are suffering from. That’s the reality of what we’re facing.

And here’s the other thing that’s going to happen: as we get closer to the midterms, you can see how much more aggressive the Iranians are becoming in their diplomatic ask of us — almost asking us to surrender, in a sense. The second thing is they’re going to get more violent, because as we get closer to the midterms, they want to create a volatile situation that demonstrates the administration is not managing the war properly, so that it will impact them in the midterm elections. The Iranians have always — multiple administrations — been tuned in to what is happening in America, and where our political resolve is. They focus a lot on our people, to understand where the American will truly is.

So I think their pathway forward is: very aggressive diplomatically, and they’re going to get very aggressive violently as well. Now, President Trump has all the options in his hands. He can take big military action any time he wants to, to shut these guys down. He can do it over a period of days; he can do it in less time than that. He has huge options, and he’s very much aware of all of that. We’ll see what takes place. I do believe, in my own mind, that the only way Iran will meet our demands is if we force them.

“So there are questions about our ability to do that militarily. You’ve certainly read all of these stories about missiles, about what’s being perhaps poached from Asian and Russian and all of the other places — we have very serious military concerns. What’s your reaction to those stories, General Keane?” Maccallum followed up.

“Well, I do have some knowledge, and I am absolutely confident that the United States has a greater capability now than we had when we began the war on February 28th. We’ve moved more assets into the region. We have more offensive capability. We have strengthened the defensive capability that’s out there,” Keane replied, adding:

Our allies in the region that Iran would want to retaliate against, in terms of their oil and gas infrastructure — I mean, the truth be known, the Saudis and the UAE have more Patriot batteries in their countries than we have protecting our people in the Middle East, to give you a sense of the scale of what they have.

Admiral Cooper is visiting all these countries, and if they need to be strengthened, he’s willing to help them — just like we have been helping the Israelis. The Israelis came to us before the 12-day war and said, “We need your help to defend against Iranian missile salvoes,” and we have, quite effectively. So, yes — are there challenges? I think we get things mixed up. There are challenges in replacing the stockpile that we’re using. That is a major issue, and that’s a public issue, and you can see Congress is very much into it, and so is the Deputy Secretary of War, every single day — he’s into that issue. But in terms of being able to prosecute a war with offensive weapons, and to be able to defend against the Iranians, we can do that quite effectively.

“It’s very clear from this list of demands that their major issue is that they want, really, a withdrawal of all U.S. military forces. They want all of our bases gone from the entire region. That has always been their goal, and that is among many stringent demands they’re making that don’t seem to line up with where we are on any of this at all. General Keane, I want to thank you so much for your time this morning, and we’ll continue the conversation. Thank you, sir,” MacCallum concluded.

Jason Cohen contributed to this report.

Watch the clip above via Fox News.

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