Former CIA chief sees Iran without internal pressure and defends toughening US military offensive

Former CIA station chief Dan Hoffman, now a Fox News contributor, stated that the Iranian regime faces no internal threat, despite the strong economic pressure caused by the blockade and sanctions. In an interview with the "Fox Report" program, he said that the United States may need to increase military strikes to force a change of stance in Tehran.

The presenter opened the conversation by remembering that the issue weighs on American voters because gasoline prices remain high. Hoffman, who headed the agency's Middle East division, said there were no signs of mass protests against Iran's government, even in the face of what he called unprecedented economic pressure.

Regime resists economic pressure

In Hoffman's assessment, the Iranian regime has a practically infinite threshold of pain and is willing to impose suffering on its own population. According to him, there is no indication that Tehran considers the war a defeat.

The former agent cited three attempts to reach out to the Iranians: a letter from Vice President Vance, the negotiations that Qatar is trying to mediate in Tehran and the trip to the Iranian capital last week by the Saudi Defense Minister, the Pakistani Army Chief of Staff and a Turkish intelligence chief. For Hoffman, the Iranians are not begging for negotiation on American terms.

Hoffman assesses that Tehran's objective is to turn the conflict into an endless war and bog down the United States in the Middle East, while at the same time trying to reduce the American ability to project power in the region.

What's at stake

The presenter cited General Jack Keane, a military analyst for Fox News, who believes that it is necessary to remove this regime from power once and for all. According to Keane, this cannot be achieved with economic pressure alone, as the regime would have great resilience and would not care about its own people. The general stated that the US has significant offensive capacity to destroy a large part of Iran's arsenal and defended creating conditions for a genuine path to regime collapse.

Pressed on what else would be possible after the attacks already carried out, Hoffman responded that intensifying kinetic attacks is an option. According to him, the attacks carried out so far have not led Iran to negotiate in good faith. He added that, without these actions, the Trump administration would not be prepared for possible Iranian offensives.

The former CIA chief described an arsenal that includes ballistic missiles and drones dispersed across the country, which would be targeted at Gulf allies, American bases in the region and critical energy infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, among other locations. He also cited hybrid and asymmetric operations on a global scale, including assassinations, and recalled that Iranians have already tried to kill President Trump and Secretary of State Pompeo.

For the market, the message of the debate is one of caution: the energy infrastructure in the Gulf appears among the potential targets mentioned, and expensive gasoline is, according to the presenter, already a concern for voters. Hoffman concluded that there may be no other way to induce regime change and reach a negotiated settlement on Iran's nuclear program, ballistic missiles and support for terrorist groups allied with Iran.

Automatically translated from Portuguese.