Hayden: Does US Have 'Political Will' to Hold Iran to Nuclear Deal?

The United States has the capacity to bomb Iran if it does not abide by the nuclear deal, but "do we have the political will?" retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden asked Newsmax TV on Friday.

"I've got issues with the Iran nuclear deal," Hayden, who directed both the FBI and the Central Intelligence Agency, told "Hard Line" host Ed Berliner. "Even those who would support it have to believe that it has to be accompanied by a robust American pushback against all of those other things that the Iranians are doing in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, and elsewhere throughout the Middle East."

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If not, the U.S. would be seen as feckless in Tehran, Hayden said.

"There are some there who will look at this and want to push us as far as they can push us. It's really very important, even for the survival of the nuclear deal, if it should come about that we push back against Iran and all of these other areas, because an immediate byproduct of the deal will be to make Iran more capable in all of these other problem sets."

Further, a tepid U.S. response could force a nuclear arms race in the region, Hayden told Berliner.

"I actually think you might be able to dampen the Saudi and the Emirate and other allies' appetites by how strong a presence and how robust a course of action we set out on in the Middle East," he said. "If they don't see us acting, they're going to want all this kit so that they can face the Iranians they fear on their own."

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