Gen. Keane urges Trump to keep up sanctions against Iran: They've never been this far back 'on their heels'

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Gen. Jack Keane on US military moving air defense systems into Iraq

Fox News senior strategic analyst, retired four-star Army General Jack Keane joins ‘Fox and Friends.’

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Fox News senior strategic analyst Gen. Jack Keane on Friday highly recommended that President Trump keep sanctions in place against Iran during the coronavirus pandemic.

“We should not let up on the sanctions whatsoever. Find every opportunity to increase those sanctions. The Iranians have never been back on their heels as much as they are now,” Keane told “Fox & Friends.”

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Keane said that the coronavirus outbreak sunk the “Iranian people” into an adverse predicament as they struggled grappling with the crisis.

“The Iranian people were so frustrated with President Trump before the virus broke out and now even more, so because they haven’t handled it very well. They haven’t been transparent. They’re not protecting their population the way they should.”

The U.S. military said Thursday that air defense systems are "moving" into Iraq following attacks on American and coalition forces in recent weeks.

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Iran has been ravaged by the coronavirus, and some fear the mounting death toll inside the country, along with the continued U.S. sanctions, could cause Iran to launch another series of attacks.

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Keane said that the Iranian regime is “absolutely under the gun from their own population” and is also an “international pariah during the pandemic.”

“They have never been as isolated as they are now,” Keane said.

Hostilities have escalated between Iran and the United States following a rocket attack in late December 2019 that killed an American contractor in northern Iraq.

Following American airstrikes days later on bases in western Iraq and eastern Syria, an angry mob attempted to storm the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on New Year's Eve.

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson contributed to this report.