Gen Jack Keane: This is REMARKABLE

All right, let's bring in and welcome back General Jack Keane, Fox News Senior Strategic Analyst. General Keane, as always, sir, welcome.

I take it you're somewhat skeptical of these peace talks? Oh, yeah, most definitely, Larry. Listen, I don't have any problem with the—with our president giving it a try. Essentially, I mean, there's leaks here and leaks there on what's in it. In a general sense, our audience to understand, what we're really asking Iranians to do is surrender all of their capabilities and what they are doing that we would take away from

them militarily. And that really is what this is all about. They would have to surrender those capabilities to us and obviously surrender control of the Straits of Hormuz to us as well. Our military plans, so our audience understands, are moving forward every single day. We are very confident of what we have accomplished and what the objectives are the president has assigned Central command the commander there believes he can accomplish all of those objectives over the next few weeks

the IDF commanders And I have a sense of what they're what they're doing and they have the same kind of confidence That they're going to be able to accomplish all of the objectives that Prime Minister Netanyahu has assigned to them. So this combined force, operating a little independent of each other with its own chain of command, is moving forward and accomplishing its mission.

And clearly, there are some things to come, likely some surprises, to be sure. But nonetheless, this is a very effective campaign that's being prosecuted here. And there's no way that the commanders in charge of these can communicate the details to the American people that would give them complete assurances as to how effective this is, because that's just too much information for our adversaries. But in a general sense, this is quite a remarkable undertaking. And I have complete confidence in them. And it is likely this is what will end the war.

And the war will end on our terms. And that is just the facts of it. Iran is never going to be the same after we finish with this.

I mean, while these talks are going on, if they're going on, I just don't know much about that by phone or through intermediaries or whatever. We are adding, the United States is adding troops to that theater in the Middle East. We're adding Marines, we're adding expeditionary forces. I'm not sure how many, you may have a better sense of it than I am, but reassuring to me is the fact that to quote-unquote we remain locked and loaded and we're only a couple days away from Friday's deadline anyway. You know,

you're right, it's good to give it the college try, but we can win militarily what they'll never give us over the peacekeeping talk discussion table. So we're adding force, and that's very important. I mean, we're not letting our guard down.

No, no, that's absolutely correct. I mean, we have plans, obviously, and they certainly do involve some of the forces that are noted that are moving into the theater. The president has plenty of options in his toolkit here in terms of what he intends to do and what our commanders are going to recommend to him to do. A lot of that depends on our adversary here. And we set plans in motion, but every single day we have to adapt to our adversary.

And certainly one of the things we expected him to do is close the Straits of Hormuz. There is no doubt in our minds that we will open the Straits of Hormuz by force and keep it open. And that's a fact. That is that's what we intend to do. That in of itself may not change oil prices now, but it's not too far away from here, from now, that that will definitely happen. That's the path we're on. And there's no doubt in our commander's mind that we can achieve that. It is adapting to what the enemy is doing. We have a very flexible, adaptive military.

We've always adjusted very well to our adversaries. The United States military is a reflection of an open democratic society like the United States is. So we grow people here that are flexible and adaptable. And our military throughout its history has reflected that. And that's what we're doing here with the Iranians.

But I'd like to see, you know, on your point, yes, we will take, the United States will take over the Strait of Hormuz. I'd like to stay with it. I think we should maintain this for the future. Not Iran, not some kind of alliance between America and Iran. The United States forces should be running the Strait of Hormuz.

And further, General Keane, my view is we should run the money. Any Iranian oil money, which they may get in the future if there's a peace deal, okay, fine, nonetheless, should be held in escrow in the U.S. Treasury Department and we should control the disbursement. Now that's similar to the deal made in Venezuela. Iran's different than Venezuela, but this point is not different.

Controlling the money, controlling the disbursements, and controlling the Strait of Hormuz. I think that's essential.

Well, you have a valid point. I don't disagree with you, and I don't think our commanders disagree with you. Our point is we're going to take the Strait of Hormuz, open it up, and keep it open. And that means we're staying in control. That's just a fact. Are we going to have a lot of help in keeping that open? Are we going to have ships to escort vessels and make certain they're safe passage? Yes. We're going to have plenty of help. And how long are we going to do that? As long as it's needed. Secondly, Karg Island. Is Karg Island out there as a as a potential for us? Karg

Island, for our viewers to understand, controls 90 percent of the distribution of Iranian oil, passes through the pipelines entering that island and the distribution point. Sixty percent of their revenue, 50 percent of their budget. Are we going to likely take control of that? It's certainly an option that the president has.

If we do take control of it, what do you think that means to Iran? It's kind of checkmate in terms of their economic situation. And that in and of itself has huge implications for this regime to be able to sustain itself. And listen, maybe we don't even have to take it. We just have to convince them that we will take it. And here's what we expect you to do if we don't take it. You do this X, Y and Z. So the president has options here. And believe me, all these options deal with one thing only, and that is to make certain that Iran does not do what they've been doing for 47 years, impose their will on this region.

That is over. That's the path that we are on. And it's a determined path, and I believe it is the right path.

Senator McCain, can I just ask you, a few moments left, enriched uranium, enriched uranium. Apparently, this is informal, 15 points, and I don't know what's exact and what's inexact, but there's a lot of mention of enriched uranium. The president himself has talked about enriched uranium. Isn't it essential that Iran hand over the enriched uranium and if they don't we have to go and get it ourselves?

Yeah, that's pretty much the case, Larry. We have the capability to take it. If through negotiations they surrender all these capabilities that we don't want them to have, the enriched uranium is certainly part of that. We would likely, if they wanted to run something they've been advertising for 30 plus years, civil nuclear power plants, they have one.

If they wanted to run more of them, we would insist on their using uranium from outside sources that we would help to bring to them and not have capability to enrich it themselves. And that would be uranium around three point six seven percent. Hate to get too technical here, but they have a uranium stores far in excess of that. If they don't give it up, we will take it. That's similar to all the other capabilities they have.

Last one, General, just a minute or so, please. You and I have talked about the regular armies, I call it, Koresh, I think is the name, versus the crazy, ideological, radical Muslim Revolutionary Guards. Is there any hope, any hope, anybody popping up from the regular army, which we have not really destroyed, we've left it alone in the main? I mean, is there potential for leadership there?

You know, Larry, I think that's an interesting point, and I think it is. I know the administration is talking to people who are below the ideologues that we're used to dealing with. These fundamental hardliners, the tyrannical diabolical leaders who would kill thousands of their own people and impose their will on the region. The view is to understand, the IRGC is an organization completely supported by the Ayatollah. The Army is an organization like some elements of the other Air Force and Navy that is similar to what armies have in other countries.

And the reality, of course, they're run by a diabolical regime. But this is largely a draftee army army and it has leaders in it that are not necessarily ideologues like the IRGC leaders are, those generals and the guys the civilian authorities who are running the country. Yes we're likely talking to some of them. I know we're talking below the ideologue level to a certain degree and and so listen the Mossad has huge tentacles into Iran and into their leadership structure.

The CIA has tentacles into that leadership structure. And certainly we're pursuing all of those courses of action, Larry. You put your finger on something that's very important. We did it in Venezuela and likely doing it here. And nobody's going to come out and tell us what they're doing there, nor do we have a right to know.

All right. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. As always, General Jack Keane, thank you, sir.