Retired four-star General Jack Keane was on “Sunday Morning Futures” with guest host Cheryl Casone to talk about the ongoing conflict with Iran.

The discussion included talk about the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s continued efforts to control the region.

“The question here, as these negotiations continue, is Iran once again just buying time?” Casone asked.

“Certainly, Iran’s objectives from the beginning, when we first did negotiations with the Obama administration, Iran, they dragged out negotiations for two years,” Keane said.

“It is one of their strategies. They believe by dragging them out, it wears us down and likelihood, we’d make more concessions,” Keane continued.

“The reality is that the Trump administration has gone into this with their eyes wide open. We are obviously in a major diplomatic phase here, and it will likely take some time. I suspect it will go past the sixty-day deadline that we currently have,” Keane said.

“We have lots of leverage here. You mentioned part of it. Holding back financing based on their achieving the goals of the, of clearly, of the negotiation,” Keane continued.

General Keane explained that when Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz, it forced the US into a position to start diplomacy. He said the Iranians see that as a gain on their end and will leverage that to get more concessions.

“It’s also important Cheryl, to recognize this from Iran’s perspective, and what are they thinking. And it’s likely the following, when they shut down the Straits of Hormuz, it stopped the war, and it began a diplomatic phase. In their minds, that is a major accomplishment,” Keane explained.

“Right now, they are still imposing some level of control and two, they can threaten to shut it down at any time. That gives them in their minds, that kind of geopolitical leverage going forward,” Keane said.

“They will use the Straits of Hormuz in the negotiations as their leverage and play it to their advantage to try to get as much concessions from the administration as possible,” Keane continued.

“We have significant leverage, but they believe they do as well,” Keane said.

“What is the red line for the President where he says enough is enough?” Casone asked.

“Well, certainly the Straits of Hormuz would likely be the reality of it. I mean, certainly if Iran does any major attack, that certainly would put us back in a major combat operation,” Keane continued.

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