Iran, which has rejected direct talks with the United States over its nuclear program, could face military force, retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer said on Newsmax Sunday.
"Mark my words here," Shaffer, appearing on Newsmax's "Sunday Report" with retired U.S. Army Col. John Mills, commented. "If the Russians are not able to help us with Iran, Iran will suffer the consequences of their bad behavior and those consequences will probably be military force."
Shaffer said that Iran will "always stall" on negotiations with the United States because that is a "tactic that is common to any nation that does not want to actually engage in activities that will mitigate their behavior."
However, he said that Iran recognizes that the United States under President Donald Trump is a much different place than it was under former President Joe Biden.
"There's no doubt there's a display of force right now going on, saying we can hit you if you want," said Shaffer, adding that Trump has the political will for a strike, as shown on the bombings of Houthi terrorists in Yemen.
Trump on Sunday threatened to bomb Iran and enforce secondary tariffs if an agreement is not reached.
"If they don't make a deal, there will be bombing," Trump said. "But there's a chance that if they don't make a deal, that I will do secondary tariffs on them like I did four years ago."
Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday the nation is rejecting direct negotiations with the United States about its nuclear program, but left open the possibility of indirect negotiations with Washington.
No talks have made progress since Trump, in 2018 during his first term, unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers.
Meanwhile, Mills said that he thinks the push for negotiations is a "strategy of the Trump administration to peel away another partner of China, just like they've been doing with Russia.
Iran, Mills said, is a proxy of China, and a "colony" that "would not exist if it wasn't for Chinese support."
And now that the "three H club" of proxies has been largely stopped, as "Hamas and Hezbollah are essentially gone [and] they have only the Houthis left," Iran is in a "very weakened situation, Mills said. "They are probably being told, do not participate in this attempt to peel them away from China."
Shaffer also said Sunday that during Trump's call last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iran "was mentioned specifically."
"Both parties, the United States and Russia, said they would never allow [Iran] to gain nuclear weapons to end Israel," said Shaffer.
However, the Houthis are "a subsidiary" of Iran, which gave them ballistic missiles to use against Israel, but the missiles came from Russia, he pointed out.
"This is all linked, and people have to pay very close attention to how President Trump tries to unravel this mess," said Shaffer.
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