Retired US Navy admiral on Iran moves: ‘Watch the Suez Canal’

Defense Retired US Navy admiral on Iran moves: ‘Watch the Suez Canal’ Comments: by Ryan Mancini - 07/19/26 10:41 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Ryan Mancini - 07/19/26 10:41 AM ET Comments: Link copied

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Retired U.S. Navy Adm. James Stavridis on Sunday warned that the U.S. should watch Iran’s actions in the Suez Canal.

“It’s got more traffic flowing through it than the Strait of Hormuz and the Iranians are beginning to make noises about attempting to close that, using the Houthis in the southwest corner,” Stavridis told CNN’s Jake Tapper, referring to the Iran-backed militant group in Yemen.

Stavridis said Iran is “adaptive” in fighting the war with the U.S. and suggested that they are watching Ukraine’s actions “very closely.”

“They’re watching what’s happening very closely in Ukraine, or they are kind of playing the part of the Ukrainians, using innovation, using drones, using maneuver, trying to inflict cost on us, the same way the Ukrainians are trying to inflict cost on Vladimir Putin,” the retired admiral said.

Stavridis noted that he was “a little bit worried” about attacks on bases and U.S. service members across the globe “where there might be less alert presence,” specifically in Europe, South Korea and Japan.

“Those are vulnerabilities that I think the Iranians would not pause on exploiting,” the retired admiral said.

The U.S. and Iran resumed their conflict last week, shattering the memorandum of understanding (MOU) both countries signed last month to seek out a final peace deal. U.S. strikes on Iran have intensified and gone on for over a week, with the latest strikes coming after two service members were killed at two air bases in Jordan on Friday.

The widening strikes on Iran have hit energy infrastructure, port facilities, bridges and other targets. U.S. Central Command (Centcom) said the latest wave of strikes on Saturday night was intended to degrade Iran’s ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and “punish” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces who launched missiles and drones against U.S. forces in Jordan.

Trump told NewsNation’s Hannah Brandt that the service members killed “were in the service of our country.”

“We hate to see it happen … And they, every one of them will never allow, they’ll fight to the death. But never allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.

The U.S. military death toll has now risen to 16 since the start of the conflict.

Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has blamed the U.S. for violating the ceasefire terms of the MOU.

“The Great Satan – the criminal US – has now realized that the continuation of its trouble-free, domineering presence in the region is nothing but a naive fantasy,” Khamenei said on the social platform X early Sunday morning.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmail Baqaei on Saturday accused the U.S. of carrying out actions resembling tactics used by terrorist groups.

“For a State that once cast itself as the global champion of order, liberalism, and the war on terrorism, proudly displaying images of destroyed bridges and civilian infrastructure has become its only remaining ‘victory,'” Baqaei said on X.

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