Iran deal prospects look dim: Keane
Retired four-star Army Gen. Jack Keane predicted on Wednesday that Iran would continue delaying negotiations with the U.S. to end the 60-day conflict in a bid to exert pressure on President Trump, as the prospects of a peace deal appear fraught .
“I think it’s pretty evident now that Iran is never going to put a deal in front of President Trump that’s going to be acceptable to him, and I don’t think that’s Iran’s objective to begin with,” Keane told hosts John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby on the “Cats and Cosby Show” on WABC 770 AM.
“I really think what they want here is to drag these negotiations out so there’s more political and economic pressure put on the president to force him into major concessions,” he added, noting he did not believe that was likely to happen.
Keane, who served a stint as acting Army chief of staff in 1993, suggested that the U.S. may soon be eyeing a return to combat operations to “finish what we started.”
“I think that’s probably the right course of action,” he said, arguing that the U.S. should maintain its naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz but not stop there. “We’ve given these guys plenty of opportunity here to make a proposal that’s reasonable, and they’re just not going to do it.”
“I don’t think just the status quo of maintaining a blockade and forcing them to economically surrender, so to speak, or to make a deal that’s acceptable to the president, I don’t think that’ll happen because they don’t care about their people,” he added, moments later. “We have to go back to the combat operation.”
A U.S. delegation led by special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, was originally set to travel to Islamabad last Saturday for a second round of Pakistan-mediated talks. However, Trump called off the trip after Tehran refused to commit to direct discussions.
The president warned in a Wednesday morning post on Truth Social that the regime “better get smart soon,” a day after he claimed an Iranian official told him the country was in a “State of Collapse” and wanted the strait reopened. He did not specify who shared the message.
He also posted an AI-generated image of himself wearing sunglasses and carrying a machine gun, with the caption: “No more Mr. Nice Guy!”
Trump has repeatedly threatened to escalate fighting if Iran does not come to the table despite a fragile, ongoing ceasefire , with administration officials brushing off Tehran’s latest proposal as unacceptable.
The Iranians have reportedly offered to loosen their grip on the Strait of Hormuz but want to defer discussions about its nuclear program — a sticking point in the stalled negotiations — to a later date.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that at some point in the future, if this radical clerical regime remain in charge in Iran, they will decide they want a nuclear weapon,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News host Trey Yingst in an interview on Monday. “That fundamental issue still has to be confronted. That still remains the core issue here.”
As for what a potential next phase in the military operation could entail, Keane said the administration would likely seek to continue decimating Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities and “have to make a decision” on nuclear enrichment.
“I think the operation would go about as quickly as we could possibly could,” he said. “We start out slow, because we want to make certain we still have air supremacy, and we’ll make certain we have that and destroy whatever air defense systems have been recovered and then go full throttle.”
“I think that’s likely the best course of action to get the objectives achieved that President Trump wants,” he added.
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