Gen Keane: We are on the VERGE of something…

Of course, Fox News senior strategic analyst. So General Keene, I'll just read it one more time. This is what the president told Martha McCallum. No time pressure on the ceasefire. The three to five day window reported earlier today is false. And he repeated no time frame, no rush.

People say I want to get it over because of the midterms. Not true. We want a good deal for the American people. And then finally, sir, he said the blockade scares them even more than the bombing. They've been bombed for years, but the blockade they hate. So General Keane, what's your reaction to this?

It's a bit of a change in the president's policy.

How do you see it, sir?

Well, let's start with the Iranian side first. I mean, the Iranians went into this ceasefire, I think, with a couple of things really in mind. One certainly was they wanted to firm up control of the Straits of Hormuz, but the big objective was to shut down the war. So they got that. And then I think the second objective, which was implied,

yes, we're going to go to negotiations, and the president set a two-week deadline, but the Iranians, I think, immediately went to a plan to extend that deadline, because they're playing for time. They think time is on their side because they believe in their minds that the political and economic pressure on the president is what got them to cease fire to begin with. And the longer they drag this out in their minds it's it complements their objectives because they believe fundamentally the longer it takes,

the more reluctant the president will be to pull the trigger and go back into combat operations. And then let's let's take a look at the delay. I understand they may do indeed have bifurcated leadership. The Institute for the Study of War has certainly seen that themselves, an organization I'm associated with. But it also may be true that despite that, they clearly want to extend this and delay

it as much as possible. And look it, the leaders here know full well what deal is on the table. They discussed it in some level of detail the last time they all met with the American delegation. And I think they can clearly come to a decision quicker than this. But here's the problem. And let's go back to the president's statement. I think what the issue here for the Iranians because they have done this before. They underestimate the president. And they did not calculate that during a 12-day war that the president really would fulfill a promise to them,

and that is destroy their nuclear enterprise, which we largely did. And some of it is under rubble, which we still want to get our hands on, as we all know. And they also miscalculated that the president would not respond to killing 30,000 to 40,000 of their people and actually come to assistance

and do something about the regime because they had fully recommitted to all of their goals despite the 12-day war, despite the damage to their nuclear enterprise, and really were trying to recover militarily as quickly as possible, which alerted the prime minister and the president that we got to do something about this. I think we're on another verge of another miscalculation here. And they're betting on the fact that kick this can down the road, drag it out, the president

will not pull the trigger. I believe he will pull the trigger. And I'll bet any amount of money, Target One is many of these people that he's talking to, or not he's talking to, but our negotiators are talking to, the new, bona fide leaders of Iran

who are absolutely as ideological as the previous one. Certainly, there are new faces here and people occupying different positions. But the reality is the ideology and the commitment to Iran is there in terms of its objectives and goals. The blockade Larry is very very effective. This is a major card. The president is playing here and they know full well what the implications of that better than better than we're stating. They understand it and they understand what the immediate impact is with the mid mid range and the long term impact. The long

term impact for sure is an economic collapse. And we could do that with a with a blow on cargallon and take it all down. Blockade does that slowly over time and erodes their capability. And you're absolutely right, Larry, in the riff here. They will have at some point here major, major compensation problems for the hundreds of thousands of people that sustain the regime. And when that starts to happen, further fracture and fissure will certainly begin to take place as to where their true loyalties lie.

And do they want to get on the end of a noose being hung by a crane by the Iranian people at some point, if that's what they see in the future? So yeah, we've got lots to play out here, to be sure. I still believe the president is holding the currency. He's got the blockade. And also, I'm convinced he's going to do what he said he's going to do. He's going to pull

the trigger here if these guys don't accept the deal that in his mind is the only acceptable deal with the terms we all know and are familiar with. If they don't accept the deal, General Soon, think that the US and or Israeli intelligence will just take the new leaders out, just take them out? Well, yes I do to be frank about it. I don't want to get into too much of the details here, but let's just say that would be a general objective in mind to do that. Yeah.

Just as the war began, remind our audience, target one in the war was to kill Ayatollah. We were going to kill him whether he was in his bunker or whether he was in his residence. And we found that we're having a major, major meeting and we were able to kill a lot of others as well.

We have new leaders. Believe me, they are target one. So I think, just on the other matters now, with respect to the blockade continues. Every day the blockade inflicts enormous economic and financial punishment on Iran, probably that Iran has never suffered before. Question I have, legitimate question General, you know, which, they're going to be hurt daily by the blockade, you know, and hopefully all these criminals running the place will be hurt badly, no payrolls will be met, etc, etc.

But do they, how much room is there for them to regroup? And are they getting outside help during this period? You know, they, they, as you said earlier, sir, they love to, they love to play us along and string us along. Now, Mr. Trump knows that, of course, but, you know, can they regroup? Is there room for any regrouping or does the blockade and the economic starvation just

knock them out one by one.

Well the primary way of getting assistance to them is certainly by ship and also some some assistance obviously by air.

And let's face it. I mean we own the sea there. They're not getting through there. We got 100% blockage that's taking place there of any assistance going to Iranian ports. We also own the airspace over Iran. Admittedly, we're under a ceasefire, but we own the airspace. And we know what's going in and what's not going in there, and we can deal with that handedly. So I think there is a surely this is a real economic squeeze on Iran that exceeds anything we try to do with sanctions. And by the way, there are sanctions still imposed on Iran that are squeezing them further.

So yes, but we don't underestimate the Iranians resilience to stick this through despite the suffering. And they'll they'll try to do that. But and it'll look like they're formidable and they're not going to break. And it looks good until it's not. And we've seen that before with regimes that collapse. Everything appears to be OK. And then all of a sudden within a day or two they're gone. We don't we can't predict that when that was happened, but there is a squeeze on them now that they have never ever had before and

you add it to the damage that we've done and asked they've had 2 weeks

now

to talk together get assessments from all this board and leaders maybe go out and actually see some things themselves. They have a clear view now of the damage that has been done to them militarily the damage that has been done to them militarily, the damage that has been done to them in terms of their ability to recover, in terms of the manufacturing capability that they have, which is formidable.

This is a highly educated country, and they have huge technology capabilities there in terms of ballistic missiles, drones, launch systems, you name it. They've got great capability. What did we do? We took it all away from them. So they they now have a clearer view of the amount of damage that is done.

And I would imagine that is another pressure point that they didn't have as much during the bombing campaign as they do now after the assessments have come in. And I'm just feeling more pressure than they ever have. No.

Yes, sir. I didn't mean to. I just was going to ask one final one, you know, so they have friends and relatives, I presume. And at some point, the economic starvation pressure, if you will, I mean, you know, family and friends aren't going to be able to get food on the table.

That's just going to be able to get food on the table. They just won't be able to get food. The currency is worthless, we know that, but they literally won't have food supplies. Now they generate some of their food internally, okay, fine, but they may not be able to pay for it. Nobody has any money. When does that happen? When does the civilian population just roar back at these thugs that are ruining their

lives?

I don't think we know the answer to that. I do think if we make a deal with the Iranians, I think there should be some expression in that deal and holding them accountable to how they treat that civilian population. But I don't think we can predict now, you know, what they're going to do. Certainly, CIH chief Radcliffe and Mossad chief Banea, who's turning over to Roman, they got a better feel for what that is and what, because they have tentacles into that population.

But it remains to be seen. I think they're going to they're waiting to see what happens here is is my speculation. Yes, is there going to be a deal if not are they going to go back to combat operations and they have to make certain their their shelter themselves to protect their families during that certainly what they want to see there's no doubt where they

are they want to see this regime so so tattered, so economically hurt, that they're on their last leg. And that may bring them out in the streets to help push them over the edge. Yes, yes sir. General Keene, thank you sir. As always, really thank you the edge. Yes, yes sir. General Keene, thank you sir. As always, really thank you

ever so much. We appreciate the updates.