A former CIA director cautioned that recent missteps by the Trump administration in its handling of the war in Iran could spell "real trouble for the future."
Leon Panetta, the former CIA director, said on CNN on Thursday that "badly stalled" talks with Iran will make a military response more likely on both sides.
"While talks are stalemated, that could be real trouble for the future," Panetta explained. "The longer we are held back from somehow sitting down and beginning those discussions, I think the problem that I see is that the earlier the tendency to respond militarily will be."
Vice President JD Vance was supposed to travel to Pakistan to talk with the Iranian side on Friday, but the White House confirmed that he would not go. Panetta said that "we should be sending our representatives to Abbottabad. We should have Iran sending its representatives to Abbottabad. They need to sit down. They need to start talking. There's an awful lot that needs to be discussed."
Panetta also spoke about how the sudden departure of John Phelan from his post as Navy Secretary will make the U.S. military look unstable while the United States fights an Iranian naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz with no deadline.
"We're in a war. We've deployed a lot of forces," Panetta said. "This is not a good time to have a disruption in leadership. What you want to show the enemy, what you want to show the world, is that we've got our act together and that everybody is operating as a team."