General Jack Keane’s publicly stated approach treats resumed major combat operations as necessary rather than optional. In late-September interviews he argued the Iranian leadership’s core goal is regime survival and that it expects to outlast U.S. pressure by pointing to oil-price effects and approaching U.S. midterms (plus Israeli elections).
He has said proxies such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Houthis will fade only if Iran itself is removed as their “centerpiece.”The package he describes combines four elements already partially in use or previously applied: a U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and oil exports; intensified Treasury-led economic isolation (he has credited Secretary Bessent’s measures); joint U.S.-Israeli strikes against remaining ballistic-missile, drone, IRGC, and revenue-generating targets (including oil and gas infrastructure he has said should be destroyed); and CIA/Mossad covert action aimed at fracturing regime cohesion and aiding internal resistance.
He has also called for fuller quarantine-style isolation of land, rail, air, and sea links with neighbors, arguing the roughly 38-day February–April 2026 campaign stopped with a substantial target list unfinished.The logic is coercive attrition intended to produce conditions for internal collapse rather than a negotiated settlement he views as unlikely to meet U.S. objectives. Its main acknowledged constraints are the same ones he attributes to Iranian calculations—energy-price sensitivity and electoral timelines—plus the risk that limited or intermittent strikes produce only a prolonged stalemate. As of early October 2026 the blockade and intermittent strikes continue, talks over reopening the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for relief remain stalled, and Keane has continued to describe a return to larger-scale operations as the probable path.
