The U.S.-Iran war could drag on for years, putting America at risk of overlooking China's rise to power, according to President Donald Trump's former defense secretary.
During a panel discussion at LSEG and Eurasia Group's GZERO Summit in London, Mark Esper said on Thursday he saw the conflict continuing "well into 2027," with a possibility that it could be handed to the next U.S. administration in three years' time.
"At some point, we will reach a point where maybe both sides are willing to come to the table and find a negotiated settlement, but the challenge for president Trump will be he's going to have to get a deal that returns the Strait of Hormuz to the status quo, which is going to be really hard, and is a deal that's better than what [former President Barack Obama] got out of the JCPOA, and I think that's going to be very difficult too," he said.
"So the question is, will he be willing to make that deal and live with the consequences or how the critics judge that deal? And so you can see another path where it gets handed off to the next administration in 2029."
Speaking to CNBC on the sidelines of the event, Esper said he does not see an end to the war "in the foreseeable future."