Retired Navy Adm. William McRaven, who directed the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, said Sunday that Iran “will have to retaliate” for the slaying of a top scientist linked to its nuclear program.

In an interview on ABC News’ “This Week,” McRaven said “the biggest issue is, who is going to misstep?"

“The Iranians are going to be in a position where they have to retaliate,” he said. “I don’t see any way around it. They’re going to have to save face. And so, now, the issue becomes, what is that retaliation look like? Does that then begin to escalate the problems in the region? And that’s not going to be good for anybody.

“The Iranians don’t want to go to war with us,” he continued. “We don’t want to go to war with Iran. So, everybody needs to do the best they can to kind of lower the temperature and try not to get this into an escalation mode.”

According to McRaven, Iran will be skeptical of the United States in the wake of President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the multinational Iran nuclear deal.

“I think they are going to be very, very reluctant to get into any agreements with the United States at this point,” he said. “So, a president [Joe] Biden will have a difficult challenge on his hands.”

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