Adm. Stavridis: 'Opportunity for Diplomacy to Reassert Itself'

The events of the past week, capped by Iran's admission it shot down a commercial jet, have led to a "pause" of U.S.-Iran conflict, perhaps, but be wary of things going back to a "shadow war," according to former Navy Adm. James Stavridis.

"That situation has, if you will, kind of hit pause," Stavridis, a former NATO commander, told Sunday's "The Cats Roundtable" on 970 AM-N.Y. "There is an opportunity for diplomacy to reassert itself, and let's hope that's how this will play out."

Before the downing of the airliner, killing 176 innocent people, the casualty-free attack of Iraqi airbases housing American troops was a "fairly weak response" from Iran and should be celebrated, Stavridis told host John Catsimatidis.

"But the challenge will be that Iran will continue a kind of shadow war in the Middle East," Stavridis added. "John, they're going to use their proxies all over the Middle East.

"These are Shia warrior groups who can attack Americans. They can attack Israelis. They can attack Arabs. The Iranians will also use their maritime assets at sea, in the Arabian Gulf, potentially against civilian tankers or even against a U.S. warship. And, thirdly, I think we are going to see a cyber response from Iran before this is all over."

Despite Iraqi parliament voting for a non-binding order of foreign troops out of the country, Stavridis called that result "unlikely," leaving the "fundamentals of the Iran standoff with the U.S. in the region "still very dangerous."

"Although it appears we have hit pause on immediate exchange of missiles – which is what occurred in this very turbulent week, at the moment we have a pause in that – but fundamentals are still very dangerous here," he said. "So, look for further concern in a shadow war between the United States and Iran in this region."

Amid the Trump administration's priority to denuclearize dictatorships in North Korea and Iran, this week did show "bad actors" around the world the first-hand dangers of provocation and air-defense systems, such as the one that struck the Ukrainian airline, according to Stavridis.

"When you see missiles flying, and see your people dying, that does have a clarifying effect in the minds of others," including "bad actors" such as North Korea's Kim Jong Un, Stavridis said.

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