Trump aims to eliminate Iran as a regional threat, says retired US General

US President Donald Trump’s administration is pursuing a strategy to neutralize Iran’s regional influence by first addressing its nuclear program and then targeting its broader activities in the region, retired US Army General Jack Keane said in an interview with Fox News on Thursday.

“If we can get the initial nuclear aspect of this, I know the administration wants to go further and curb Iran's behavior,” Keane said. “And what are we talking about here? State-sponsored terrorism and their malign behavior in supporting proxies in the region. In other words, you just take Iran off the map completely as a threat to the region. That is where the administration wants to go as a goal.”

Keane also said that Trump is using Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as leverage to pressure Tehran into accepting a deal more favorable to US interests.

“I think he's using Netanyahu as leverage here to force the Iranians into a deal that makes sense to us. It may not make a lot of sense to the Iranians because they still want to pursue a nuclear weapon,” he said.