Four-star general reveals why Iran's Ayatollah isn't cutting peace deal as Trump's countdown begins
General Jack Keane, the former Vice Chief of Staff to the US Army, told Fox News that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei believes the country will be able to restart its hydrogen bomb with relative ease after a US-Israel bombing campaign.
Amid varying assessments from top US officials over how close Iran is to developing a nuclear weapon, Keane said the hostile nation's abilities should not be underestimated.
'The nuclear enterprise is vast, and it is resilient,' Keane said. '(There are) multiple sites, centrifuges, so you can spin up enriched uranium.
'They did that to survive.'
Keane said the Ayatollah has 'never made a deal' because 'he has built an enterprise to survive an attack' that he believes is strong enough to withstand US strikes.
'He believes they can absorb an attack, survive it, recover from it, and then rebuild. That is where this guy is,' he said.
'I don't see him, in the near term, making a deal here whatsoever.'
Keane, a four star general, was likely referring to Iran's nuclear bomb factory, which is called Fordow and which sits deep under a mountain.
The United States' most powerful 'bunker buster' bomb has been touted as a possible match for the Fordow facility.
Other experts believe a tactical nuclear weapon would be needed. Using a nuclear bomb in an act of war is a huge taboo unbroken since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
"I don't see him in the near term making a deal": @gen_jackkeane on the Ayatollah's approach pic.twitter.com/yoF0qbfnhR
— FOX & Friends (@foxandfriends) June 20, 2025
The general said for Trump to succeed, he needs to 'take the whole enterprise down' and wipe out the nation's top leadership and military capabilities, after Israel significantly weakened Iran in recent weeks.
'Look, Israel have destroyed all 70 of their air defense batteries, all of them. Air force, gone. The 12 nuclear sites, damages or destroyed. Then, leadership (is) decapitated, military and nuclear scientists. They can replace nuclear scientists, but in the near term, major problem.'
Iran has long vowed to obliterate Israel at the first chance it gets, with Israeli intelligence beginning their bombing campaign earlier this month over fears leaders in Tehran were just months off completing a nuclear weapon.
World leaders and many military strategists have urged Trump to find a diplomatic solution to the crisis, fearing that any direct US intervention could spiral into all-out war.
Iran's allies include Russia and China, meaning the stakes for the current conflict could not be higher.
Trump has instated a two-week deadline to make a decision, primarily whether to use a 30,000lb 'bunker buster' bomb to penetrate Iran's underground enrichment plant in Fordow.
But Keane, who was heavily involved in the Iraq War, said he 'absolutely' believes Trump should use the bunker buster, saying 'the alternative is unacceptable.'
He admitted that using the weapon could face challenges as we've never actually done' it before, but insisted 'that doesn't mean you don't do it.'
Keane's urging of Trump to use the 'bunker buster' bomb comes as experts say the weapon is one of the only tools in the US military arsenal that could take out the Fordow enrichment site.
The 30,000lb bunker-buster bomb, loaded with 6,000lbs of deadly explosives (pictured), is the largest non-nuclear bomb at America's disposal
The 30,000lb bomb is the largest non-nuclear bomb at America's disposal, and can smash through several hundred feet of earth, with the Fordow site said to be located up to 300ft underground.
The GBU-57A/B 'bunker buster' bomb, as it is known, is arguably the top military reason that Israel wants the United States to join its air campaign against arch-foe Iran.
The US designed and built the Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) and remains the only nation to possess the bomb, as well as being the only country with warplanes capable of dropping its formidable payload.
Crucially, it is also the only weapon widely believed to be capable of smashing through Iran's deeply buried nuclear facility at Fordow.
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