Iran deal ‘long way from accomplishing’ Trump objectives: Retired general

Retired four-star Army Gen. Jack Keane on Wednesday said the tentative deal between the U.S. and Iran is a “long way from accomplishing” President Trump’s objectives in the Middle Eastern country.

Keane told hosts John Catsimatidis and Rita Cosby on the “Cats and Cosby Show” on WABC 770 AM that his “gut reaction” to the deal was “more about what’s not in there than what’s in it,” referring to a lack of restrictions on Iran’s missile capabilities and inspections of its nuclear facilities.

“I was really expecting a little more meat on the bone,” he said. “We’re a long way from accomplishing the objectives that the president wants to accomplish here with the Iranians. … We’re at the beginning of a process that’s going to take some time here for sure.”

Keane, who served a stint as acting Army chief of staff in 1993, noted that Iranian officials will look at the U.S. response to the deal as “something of a victory for themselves because the war is not continuing.”

“They got a ceasefire,” he told Catsimatidis and Cosby. “Now they’re moving towards a final agreement. And they’re going to delay that as much as possible, believing that the closer we get to the midterms, the less likely the president will return with military operations.”

Keane predicted in April that the Iranians would delay negotiations “to force him into major concessions” as a result of growing political and economic pressure at home, though the retired general said he did not think that would happen.

Trump has said the text of the agreement to end the Iran war will not be released until after both parties sign it Friday.

While some outlets including Bloomberg and CNN have obtained the 14-page memorandum of understanding (MOU), White House communications director Steven Cheung has said the reported text “does not reflect the language of the actual MOU.”

The MOU reportedly states that fighting on “all fronts,” including Lebanon, must cease. Other key details include reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a $300 billion reconstruction fund for Iran, an end to U.S. sanctions on Iran, a commitment from Iran to not build nuclear weapons, an unfreezing of Iranian assets and waiving sanctions on Iran’s oil exports.

The deal would not explicitly stop Iran from enriching uranium, though both sides have reportedly agreed in principle to an enrichment moratorium.

Any final agreement will need to be approved by Congress and through a binding resolution through the United Nations Security Council.

Many Trump allies disapprove of the deal, with some arguing that there are few details available about the fate of Iran’s nuclear program, which had been an alleged threat before the U.S. and Israel carried out strikes in February.

“The details that I’ve seen so far look … awful,” Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a Trump critic, told Nexstar’s Reshad Hudson on Capitol Hill. “This will go down as a tremendous foreign policy blunder.”