Iran has made a "big mistake" by not just attacking US bases and assets in the Gulf states, but also targeting civilians in the region, the former director of the CIA has told Sky News.
General David Petraeus, the former director of the CIA, told lead world news presenter Yalda Hakim that Iran has widened the war by hitting airports, seaports, gas and oil loading stations in Gulf states.
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"It also went after a UK base. I think this was a drone launched by Hezbollah from southern Lebanon against the base in Cyprus," he said.
"What this is doing is bringing those countries, which sought to be neutral in a way, to stay out of it, to not allow the US to use their bases, [to now] be part of it."
As well as his role in running the US spy service between September 2011 and November 2012, General Petraeus was pivotal as a military commander in Iraq, where he led the 2007 "Surge" strategy that significantly reduced insurgent violence after the American invasion four years earlier.
US President Donald Trump has made it clear he wants regime change in Iran after launching a wave of strikes with Israel, which he warned is yet to reach its peak.
But General Petraeus said regime change won't come by air.
"Air power alone is not going to bring down a regime. These are not the colour revolutions either, where just a popular sentiment can topple regimes in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, as we saw in eastern Europe and former Soviet republics," he said.
"There's going to have to be some kind of ground force. The objective [...] is to try to create conditions where the most important regime forces are dramatically degraded, the capabilities are reduced, and leadership is disrupted enormously."
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He questioned whether the salvo of airstrikes by US and Israeli forces could potentially create conditions in Iran where some element of the regime forces "could break off and galvanise the people to actually topple the regime".
"I don't think that's the base case just yet," General Petraeus added.
The former CIA chief said if there was such an emergency of force in Iran, it would need to be "guys with guns", because "it is the guys with the most guns and the willingness to be the most ruthless that often prevail" in those situations.
(c) Sky News 2026: Iran made a mistake targeting civilians in Middle East, says former CIA director
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