Gen Keane: We are on the CUSP

All right, there you have it, Maria Bartiromo and the President. So we welcome back to the show General Jack Keane, Fox News strategic analyst. General Keane, as always, sir, thank you for coming on. Is the war almost over? And how does this blockade, which I think is going to be very effective, sir, really killing them on the economy and finance and maybe starving the regime out.

But how does the blockade play into the end of the war?

Yeah, very significantly. I don't think we can overstate exponentially how dramatic this impact is on the Iranians. I mean, I really thought we should have done it as soon as they took control of the Straits. But we're here and that's the important thing. We are executing it. And the reality is, I do think we are likely here on the cusp of some kind of beginning to terminate. And by that I mean, when you look at it, we hold to the deadline and that's coming

within a week. They know we're going to come back and hit them militarily. That's number one. Number two, the longer the blockade goes, frankly, they do the numbers themselves. That forces total economic collapse for them. They can't handle that, nor do they want to return to military combat operations. So the terms of discussion, I believe, with our negotiating team when they were in Pakistan the last time,

the blockade was not in place. They should completely change now. And by that I mean we want everything. You surrender everything to us. By the deadline you make a commitment to that. And that means everything. Just as President Trump has said before we make zero concessions to these guys. Zero. And we don't throw them a lifeline as I think we were discussing before to release frozen assets, the minimum amount I've heard is $27 billion.

It's likely bigger than that. Obama, remember, gave him about $100 billion. And we don't do sanction relief. We don't do any economic lifeline to you until way down the road and you prove to us that your behavior has changed. The only term that we're going to grant them in the deal now should be the only

accommodation and take out of the vernacular any thought about face saving for the Iranians. That should not be in our thoughts and it certainly shouldn't be in our actions here. And the only thing that we should—we're saving them from doing, I mean, the relief we're providing them, we're not asking you to sign a surrender document. And if we kept the blockade on, believe me, that would get to that point. And we're not going to continue to kill you.

That is our concession. And that's all the concession should be in my mind. Yes, we're getting closer to it, Larry, because they can't not withstand the impact of the blockade and they certainly don't want us returning to combat.

No, I know. I wish it happened earlier, but it happened. I thought it was a brilliant, brilliant ploy by the president, reversing the whole term. I mean, in effect, you're describing unconditional surrender. They don't have any position on anything. They have no foothold on anything. They do what we want them to do. And I'm happy to have this blockade go on for a bunch of weeks, General Keene.

You know, they can talk, yap yap and pack I don't care let it go on but basically let the blockade it's going to take effect they're going to run out of their they won't be able to meet their payroll all right for for all these thugs and the IRGC and so

forth and so on. Let me ask you something that has come up. President Trump has mentioned this in one of the interviews. The issue of turning over what he calls the nuclear dust, the enriched uranium. We'd like to see that. That was in one of our documents, I believe the last go around in Pakistan. Is that possible? I mean, it seems to me that would be important. We know where it is. I think it's the Ipsihan nuclear area. But what do you think about that? That should

be the first thing. Commit to open the Straits of Hormuz and you have no control, no leverage over it. And invite us in as soon as possible. You know, send anybody else you want to send with us in there, but we're coming to take it just like we did in Libya. That should be item one.

And I think we're on the cusp of it. And then the last thing, sir, is how do we really get regime change? How do we get the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp out all together? I mean, we may be at the fourth level, but there's still a bunch of thugs, as you know, you have told me many times, with names and so forth. I mean, where's the regular army here? How do

we get a civilian governance?

Well, if they suffered economic collapse and they had difficulty meeting the payroll of the hundreds of thousands of people that are working for them, that certainly begins to fracture them. And after all, if you want to change the political order and you want to guarantee that, the only way you can do that is to physically take that away from them. And that puts that's boots on the ground.

And we've showed and we have examples of doing just that. And obviously we know how to do that. But we we made a commitment that that was not going to happen because we thought that we can change their behavior for sure without having to take that risk that decisive step and accept those kind of casualties. And And I think we're on the path to doing that. You know, we don't know for sure, but the pressure on this regime is going to be enormous. I mean, the other thing I think we should have done and we haven't done, and that is

let the Kurds and the Azaris begin to take down a town or a city and see if that produces a chain reaction. There's no loss in doing that. Even if they don't succeed, it's still a demonstration of civilian opposition that's under arms wanting to risk their life to do something. And, but yes, the weakness of the regime is vital to us and we stay in control

of their behavior going forward. That is absolutely worth everything that we have done here. To include the sacrifice that our troops have made. That is an incredible, wonderful goal to achieve. And I give the President all the credit here for sticking with this and putting this last

chip on the table, which has given us unbelievable momentum. I mean, he doubled down is what he did. After they blocked the Strait of Hormuz, he came right back and did it in spades to them. And that is changing everything for sure. Yes, sir. 100 percent, sir.

Thank you, General Keene, as always.

Really, thank you ever so much. Really, thank you ever so much.

Talk soon.