Gen Keane: We must be VERY careful…

All right, welcome back to the show, General Jack Keane, Fox News Senior Strategic Analyst. General Keane, as always, sir, thank you for helping us. A lot of information and news today. And let me begin by asking your assessment, sir.

Well, we're in a very good place. The President clearly has doubled down on the Iranians for sure. I mean, they started with closing the Straits of Hormuz and they got a ceasefire out of that. They were probably luckily feeling pretty good about that. And look what happened here. We put a blockade in place. This is President Trump's decision and everything changed as a result of it. And

the reason simply is that we are now holding in our hands Iran's complete economic viability as a nation because they are 100% dependent as a nation on the oil that we are now blocking falling into their hands in terms of the distribution of the oil and the money that would follow as a result of it.

So we are on a very good path here. But I also, because of that 47 year history dealing with the Iranians and I dealt with Iran as an adversary nation most of my military career and then some after it. And I have a healthy dose of skepticism and dealing with these guys Larry. In other words what, what we have to take into consideration here is what Iran is promising to our negotiators and what they actually do in terms of signing a statement and then actually execute. That could be something different again. So what my skepticism surrounds, what do they want to do? They want to

extend this ceasefire as long as they can get it because this is complicated and we have to work the details and drag this out. That is what they have done in the past. We got to stay focused on them. We got to push them. What we should be doing is push them to finish by the deadline and get the agreement done on everything by the deadline and then work out some details after that and do that as quickly as possible and make certain then when everything that they say they're going

to do, there has got to be a separate process for verification of just that. And that means permission to go into Iran anywhere, anytime, inspections, anywhere, anytime. That has never been the case in their 47-year history, to include the IAEA. They told them where they could go and where they could not go. And we have to break that paradigm. All of the process of the past and how they controlled inspectors and how they deceived and lied through all of this is what we're dealing with. This regime has not changed. Remember what's happened here, Larry, and

you know it because we talked about it. We've changed the faces and the names. We have not changed the ideology and the regime itself. They are still there, and they are working on their own self-interest and how best do they recover. As an example, we know from a fact, from intelligent sources, that they are fastly trying to recover their ballistic missile program.

Much of it is under rubble, as well as their launchers. We know they've got about a thousand missiles that they haven't used yet, and so somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 launchers, and they're recovering all the rest of that. Now, why are they going to all of that trouble? Likely because down the road, they're not going to change one iota, and we've got to maintain that skepticism. I'm taking anything away from the deal

I'm just trying to sprinkle a little realism Yeah on who we're dealing with here and we got the history and we have the evidence of of what I'm talking about here now so we We got to be we got we gotta be really careful of what we're doing here with them, knowing who we're dealing with. And I understand the negotiators have a tendency to get euphoric over the Iranians are telling

us they're going to do X, Y, and Z. I got it. Those are words only. Iranians sign a piece of paper saying they're going to X, Y, Z. I got it. That's a piece of paper only. None of that is execution until we find ourselves

flying in there to take out the highly enriched uranium. Now that that that is real substance.

Right. Plus all the other things that we have to verify as well. Well I think first of all I agree. I mean it's trust but verify to the 100th power. Absolutely. 100 percent. You're right. Of course you're right. I think it's very important in this. What Mr. Trump said, the naval blockade will remain in full force and effect as it pertains to Iran only until such time as our transaction with Iran is 100% complete. And I presume I mean, not only is it important that we maintain control so we cut off their

money, their finances, their economy, okay, and bleed them out, but also until the process you described is worked through, it's very tricky. There's going to be a trend, they say it will be a transfer of the enriched uranium from Iranian hands to American hands. As you noted, sir, that has never happened before. They don't even let the international inspectors in. So we have to work out a very careful

process here and then see if in fact it works, if they permit it to happen before we let up on anything. Right? Our combat troops have to remain in place and the embargo has to remain in place until such time as that whole operation is completed.

Yeah and the other thing we have to remind ourselves of, we have to keep in place the return to combat operation. No one wants to hear that. I get it because now we're approaching the end and everybody's feeling good about it but that that is real muscle. And that helped to bring us to where we are. And we got to hold that over our head. Obviously, our combat forces in the region aren't going anywhere.

Israel's forces aren't going anywhere. And we can't, in our exuberance towards the end, to get this deal finalized and made public and feel good about it, we got to make sure the discipline is in there and the diligence is in there to really force them to deliver on what they say they're going to deliver or deliver on what they sign and write what they're going to deliver. These are different things completely. And I think we've got their attention. I'm not disputing we don't. And we certainly own them in a way we never have before.

And there's one reason why this is all happening, because our backstop here was President Donald Trump. He insisted on it. He, when they thought they doubled down and got the war stopped, and they had this leverage and momentum

and were feeling pretty good about all of that. Then he took matters into his own hands and ordered the blockade. Not only that, but remember, he ordered also to clear the straits, which we're still doing, secure the straits and escort ships through. That would have been phase two. And it likely is not going to be necessary now, but preparations are underway if it does become necessary. What we're hearing from the Iranians is good news,

that they are opening the straits in terms of no more intimidation and coercion of the ships. And let's hope that really turns out to be the case. And therefore, we don't have to do that second operation. That is very good news.

But we can't be sure of that either. I mean, I was reading there, you know, the notices. They were linking this opening of the Strait of Hormuz to the Lebanese ceasefire with Israel. I mean, there just seems to be always a lot of conditions. They're not straight shooters.

So your point is important. We have to maintain control. And I think that's what I think President Trump knows that we have to maintain control. We have to have the combat troops ready. We have to maintain control of the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman and all that. Stop the money, stop the oil and keep the heat on. There's no rush to make this transaction. I mean it's got to be done very carefully. I worry some people might think

oh yes by this weekend it'll all be done. No no no no that's not possible. This is a lengthy process.

Well can I add something Larry.

Yes.

You know it's not one of the topics. The president tweeted out today no bombing of Hezbollah by Israel. And I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding here in the terms of agreements for the ceasefire that all parties have agreed to. This is a ceasefire in Lebanon that Hezbollah and Israel and Lebanon have agreed to. in those terms it permits Israel to conduct

defensive air and ground operations if Hezbollah is indicating that they're planning an offensive attack, if one is imminent, or if one is actually being executed. Therefore Israel has the right to defend itself using ground power and certainly using air power because that gives them an advantage. And certainly that is what we have had for the last six, seven weeks now. And certainly that is what Israel has.

Just wanted to clear up that misunderstanding. I think what the president was reacting to was an offensive operation that took place many days ago in Beirut when a couple of apartment buildings were hit and they were crushed because what the Hezbollah made those operation centers and evicted the tenants and they did it in Christian and Jewish neighborhoods and there were some civilian casualties as a result of

that in terms of a collateral damage. Just wanted to clear that point up and certainly the president now is aware of that misleading information.

Thank you sir. Thank you General Jack Keane as always. Thank you for your wisdom and Thank you sir. Thank you General Jack Keane as always. Thank you for your wisdom and your insight. We appreciate it enormously.