Retired Four-Star U.S. Army General Jack Keane, who served vice chief of staff of the United States Army from 1999 to 2003, appeared on Fox on Sunday and warned that even if Iran does agree to a deal with the U.S., “they won’t comply.”
On Life, Liberty & Levin, Keane said: “The President and his team felt that the Iranians were sincere about wanting to negotiate and we began a series of negotiations that lasted over 90 days, and even came up with a signed agreement.” Keane referred to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which was signed by leaders on both sides in June.
Keane said it was “just one agreement and that was to open up the Strait of Hormuz and the U.S. would remove its blockade.”
Then after the U.S. removed the blockade, Keane said, the Iranians violated the agreement by interfering with the Strait of Hormuz. “You cannot trust the Iranians,” he said. “They will lie and cheat, and even if they make a deal, they will not comply with it.”
[NOTE: Trump’s negotiation team on Iran, led by his Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, have been criticized for their handling of the MOU with Iran. Critics and former diplomats questioned whether Witkoff and Kushner — billionaire real estate developers — fully understood the terms of the agreement.]
Although the U.S. initiated the war in Iran with Israel in February, Keane blamed Iran for “putting us on this pathway,” and added, “They are not people who are going through some kind of behavioral change and are reasonable.”
He added that Iranian leadership “has always been defiant, arrogant,” and “will never make any concessions at all.”
. Mr. @POTUS ,
Iran will NEVER comply.
Get over it and make a decision one way or the other.
America faces an existential moment.
May GOD watch over and protect America
https://t.co/IYLwmdbvIt
— General Mike Flynn (@GenFlynn) July 27, 2026
Retired Lt. General Mike Flynn, who briefly held the position of National Security Advisor during the first Trump administration, voiced his agreement with Keane, and wrote to the President on social media: “Mr. @POTUS, Iran will NEVER comply. Get over it and make a decision one way or the other. Even if Iran makes a deal, it won’t comply.”
Executive Director of the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, Khalid Al-Jaber, wrote that the MOU didn’t last due to its ambiguity. He noted that “its ambiguity may have facilitated the signing of a deal, but it also undermined the likelihood of it being implemented.”
Al-Jaber added, “An agreement that allows each side to claim victory is not a diplomatic success: it is a temporary compromise that is destined to collapse, particularly when each party interprets its terms to suit its own interests.”
Al-Jaber continued: “Thus, the real question is not whether Washington and Tehran will return to the negotiating table, but whether they will learn from recent experiences, and acknowledge that an agreement open to multiple interpretations is not truly an agreement at all, but a temporary truce, pending the next round of conflict.”
On the Fox News show Varney & Co., Gen. Keane said Friday, “I don’t see the President moving back into negotiations even though the Iranians want that.” He added of Trump, “He knows he’s not going to stop them through negotiations.”