War in Iran: "The United States has never really had clear objectives"castigates the former director of the CIA on LCI

• Leon Panetta, former director of the CIA, was the guest of LCI this Friday, May 15.
• The latter criticizes American intervention in Iran, asserting that the objective of bringing down the regime was not corroborated by intelligence information.
• As for the stagnation of the conflict, he believes that sending the army is now the only solution to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“History has always taught us that we cannot bomb to achieve regime change.” Guest of LCI this Friday, May 15, Leon Panetta, former director of the CIA between 2009 and 2011, castigated the military intervention of the United States in Iran, believing that it had been carried out without “clear objectives”. 

“Iran has always been an adversary and a subject of concern to us due to its efforts to develop nuclear weapons and its support for instability in the region. Iran is therefore a long-standing enemy,” he began by explaining.

“But I think that the effort to carry out this attack, in conjunction with Israel, in the hope that if we eliminated the leaders, the regime would collapse within a few days, that was not a good objective. Because our intelligence sources had made it clear that that would never happen. And so, I think the United States never really had clear objectives as to the reason for this war”he assured.

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While Donald Trump had justified this military operation by the need to help the Iranians overthrow the regime, Leon Panetta questioned this idea. “Regime change can only happen if you attack the base with the people rising up and making it possible. So regime change was not what I would call a realistic goal for this initiative.”he recalled. HAS

After the Twelve Day War (nouvelle fenêtre)in June 2025, during which Iranian nuclear capabilities had been considerably weakened, “If the United States had used the CIA to try to develop leadership within the population and support this revolt, this might have been an opportune time to try to see if we could bring about regime change.”. “But unfortunately, that didn’t happen. So, from now on, we are at an impasse with Iran,” a-t-il regretté. 

And, for Leon Panetta, the urgency of this Twelve Day War was not justified. “Even if they had fuels enriched to a very high level”to the capacity of Iran “Assembling all the complex components needed for a bomb was going to, we believe, take much longer. So, as the intelligence showed again, there was no imminent threat that they would be able to quickly develop a nuclear weapon.”detailed the former senior official.

I was stunned that President Trump said he was surprised by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz

Leon Panetta, former director of the CIA

According to the former director of the CIA, this new war only had the effect of strengthening the Iranian regime: “The intelligence clearly shows that the regime is more powerful than ever, more firmly anchored than ever. It is an even more intransigent regime than under the last ayatollah.”

As for the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Leon Panetta believes that it constitutes “a tremendous lever” for Iran. “To be frank, I was stunned that the president said he was surprised by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz. When I was Secretary of Defense and we were discussing possible military action against Tehran, one “One of the first things we knew would happen was that Iran would close that strait.”a-t-il souligné. 

To resolve the situation, “use military force” would, according to him, be the only solution. “The United States missed an opportunity by not using the army to open the Strait of Hormuz from the beginning. But now it’s difficult to do. So, we’re going to have to call on the navy, we’re going to have to use the ships we have. We’re going to have to use helicopters, special forces […] There will be no way out of this impasse to end this war until the United States finds a way to open the Strait of Hormuz.”

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Asked about the future of the region, the former director of the “Agency” confides his pessimism. “If there is an agreement, […] I don’t trust the regime, the power in Iran to respect this agreement […] And I don’t think they have particular confidence in the ability of the United States to respect this agreement. So I think there’s a good chance that within four or five years, the United States and Israel will find themselves at war again.”

Especially since this war could permanently change relations in the region, and in particular between allies, such as the United States and Israel. If the two states are “related to each other”, “I have always believed that the United States must also preserve its independence when it comes to protecting our national security,” a analysé Leon Panetta. “Even though the United States could very well end this war […] There are still a number of goals that Israel believes it must achieve. Israel could therefore prove to be a very difficult partner in any agreement aimed at ending this war.”he concluded.