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Iran war likely to drag on for another six months, ex-US defense secretary warns

07 September 2026 00:16 (UTC +04:00)

Donald Trump’s war with Iran is likely to drag on for another six months, Leon Panetta, the former US defense secretary, has warned, as the US president struggles to find his way out of the controversial conflict, APA reports citing The Guardian.

Panetta declared in an interview that the war with Iran – launched by Trump over six months ago – risks becoming another “forever war in the Middle East”, with no clear end in sight.

“It’s no mystery that the United States and Iran are caught in a terrible stalemate, in which there really are very few options available to bring this war to an end,” said Panetta, who also served as CIA director under Barack Obama, suggesting the conflict is on course to become “another failed war” in the Middle East “like Iraq and Afghanistan”.

“I think the likelihood is this war is going to continue for another six months without being resolved,” he added.

Trump now has three options, according to Panetta. The first would be to walk away and “admit that it’s a failed war”, something Panetta finds it difficult to see Trump doing.

The second would be to draw out the current “stalemate, with periodic attacks going back and forth, tit for tat”, and both sides attempting to “avoid the startup of a more dangerous war” while refusing to either negotiate or surrender.

That approach, Panetta believes, would produce “what all parties feared”: another protracted war in the Middle East.

The third option, he said, would be for the US to take control of the strait of Hormuz, and remove Iran’s “most dangerous leverage point” over the US, “which is the ability … to close and disrupt” the global trade chokepoint.

“So the president either steps up and does what’s necessary to open up the strait of Hormuz, or, as I said, he just continues to play … this game of pretending that somehow he’s winning a stalemate when the fact is he’s not,” Panetta said.

Asked if he believed the war is “winnable” for the US, Panetta replied: “It’s only winnable if there is a dramatic change in the attitude of the United States that makes clear that the objective, the primary objective by the United States at this point in time, is to reopen the strait of Hormuz.”