Former CENTCOM commander on the Strait of Hormuz and Sen. Lindsey Graham’s passing

(CBS, KYMA) - Retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, the former commander of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about the Strait of Hormuz.

Brennan brought up her last conversation with the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), where he said, "If this deal fails, President Trump is going to take the Strait of Hormuz over by force. The U.S. will control the Strait of Hormuz."

This prompted her to ask Retired Gen. McKenzie how the U.S. will end up controlling the Strait of Hormuz, to which he said:

"We certainly have the capability to control the Strait of Hormuz if the president chooses to follow that course of action. Look, what he's been trying to do is get to a diplomatic and a political solution here, which I applaud, and I think we should all want to see as the final end state. Nonetheless, the fact of the matter is the Iranians generally only respond to military force and to extreme pressure. Look, we're not talking about regime change here. What we're talking about is modifying the views and actions of an extreme hardline regime, that is possible. We have the capability to do that. That capability is resident in the U.S. military should the president elect to employ it. That would include opening the Strait of Hormuz, maintaining the Strait of Hormuz open, and in fact, seizing Kharg Island, should we elect to do that. And I would just say, as an aside, that's something we should think about doing because possession of Iranian soil would be a significant factor in future negotiations with Iran. So all those options are on the table. I'm not sure where we're going to go with this, but I do know we have these capabilities."

Brennan followed up by asking if those capabilities in need to involve ground troop, and if he has been at all surprised by the amount of pain the Iranian leadership appears is willing to take on while turning down the financial incentives the Trump Administration is offering them, and McKenzie said:

"Given the history of Iran and their negotiating posture over many years, I'm not surprised at all by the current Iranian posture. A former CENTCOM commander once said, 'You know, Iran has never met a war they could win or a negotiation they could lose.' And that's very true. What Iran wants to do is extend negotiations in time, arguing about the size of the table, who's in the room, the font on the document, everything about...except the core issues. We need to recognize that, and we need to be prepared to pressure Iran to negotiate on the real germane issues. And by that, I mean opening the Strait of Hormuz, some movement on ballistic missiles, some movement on support for proxies. All those things we are capable of getting some form of movement on all those things. We just have to be willing to put pressure on Iran in order to achieve those goals."

During the interview, Brennan and McKenzie talked about the passing of Sen. Graham, where his office said he died "from a brief and sudden illness."

"Senator Graham was a great representative of the state of South Carolina. In our nation, a great voice in the national security space, and a particular friend to the Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina. Over many years, he's done a lot of great things for our school. In fact, he embodies the concept of the citizen soldier. The person who isn't a professional military officer pursues a broad, deep, public professional career, and yet dons the uniform and serves his nation. That's what we seek to produce at the Citadel. No better person to emulate than Lindsey Graham, and we will miss him dearly."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with McKenzie, click here.