Fox News’ Bill Hemmer raised the possibility that President Donald Trump has been suckered into a “long, stalemated negotiation” with the Iranians during a Monday morning conversation with retired Army General Jack Keane.

The Memorandum of Understanding reached between the United States and Iran over the weekend creates a 60-day window for technical negotiations with the aim of establishing a lasting peace between the two countries. On Monday, Hemmer expressed his concerns with a question directed at Keane.

“This 60-day period, sir, if we reach it, this is precarious. It’s tough stuff because Iran’s history is to get to that table and just drag this thing out — month after month and eventually year after year,” observed the longtime anchor. “What do you think about us getting suckered back into a long, stalemated negotiation?”

“Well, certainly, what we’ve just gone through is an indicator of just that, and I’m sure that’s why you’re raising it. We went through a ceasefire because the discussion was that they would open a straits of Hormuz in two weeks’ timeframe, and here we are now, 60-plus days, and finally that is going to happen. So, they had two objectives when they shut the straits down. One, stop the war. Two, drag out the negotiations. They did drag out negotiations. Our negotiators are certainly clear-eyed about what they’re dealing with here. They know full well that what the Iranians say and even what they sign may be different than what they actually do. Why? Because we’ve been watching them for 47 years, and they cheat, and they lie. And we know that’s what they’re up to. That is why we cannot have just open-ended negotiations, in my view. Privately — we can tell them we don’t necessarily have to do it publicly — but this is what we want to see, and these are the timelines we want to see it in terms of these agreements going forward,” replied Keane, who continued:

They’re banking on the fact that the closer we get to the midterm elections, the less likelihood that President Trump would ever re-initiate military operations. Well, he just did it last week. That’s an indicator to me he’s dead serious about it. And he said he’s willing to do it again, so that is a lever that we have to watch to stop them from dragging this out, as you indicated, because that has been their history. What they say, what they sign, and what they actually do and implement, history tells us are two different things. And we have to bake into this deal enforcement and compliance, and certainly the threat of military operations is a part of that.

Watch above via Fox News.

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