Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Robert Spalding told Newsmax on Saturday that the United States must lock down the Strait of Hormuz with an enduring military presence, warning that Iran's weakened regime cannot be trusted to honor any deal as Tehran announced it had suspended its commitments under the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding after seven straight nights of U.S. strikes.

Spalding, a former B-2 wing commander and one-time senior director for strategic planning at the National Security Council, appeared on "America Right Now" as Iran's deputy foreign minister for legal affairs, Kazem Gharibabadi, told state media Tehran had halted its obligations under the June deal that briefly paused fighting.

"I think the Iranians have been so beaten down that we're not going to see much from them," Spalding said. "But this is the president's attempt to get control of the strait. It should have been taken long ago."

He faulted the president's earlier diplomatic tack. 

"I think he was trying to see if we could get to a deal. As I said many times, you can't trust the Iranians. So this is what needs to happen. And I think it's going to continue until we degrade their ability to affect the strait," he said.

"I don't know who you would negotiate with in the country and actually be assured that they could carry out whatever promise they made to the government of the United States," he added.

"There's no real central power there. They have been weakened. They need to be further weakened. And hopefully we'll see a new regime come to power in the future. But right now, there's nothing to trust in what is remaining of the regime to honor any promise they have. And you can't even trust their promises."

Asked how the U.S. could credibly claim to control the waterway, Spalding said the mission requires a durable footprint, not a series of raids.

"We have to basically reduce the range of their ability to strike shipping in the strait. And then we're going to have to create a ticket that prevents them from getting to ships as they cross through," he said.

"It's not going to be something where we have a bunch of attacks, and then it's just, okay. We're going to actually have to create an enduring presence, kind of like Operation Northern Watch or Operation Southern Watch in Iraq. It's going to have to be in place, and it's going to have to control the strait with force."

"You can't just expect that the Iranians won't do whatever they can to attack shipping," he added. "So it's going to require us to be in place for a long time."

President Donald Trump has warned that U.S. strikes will expand to Iranian bridges and power plants unless Tehran returns to talks, while Vice President JD Vance alleged on Joe Rogan's podcast that a foreign-funded influence operation was working to derail the administration's diplomacy.

Roughly 20% of the world's oil passed through the strait before the war began in late February.

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