Tehran will be the top threat in 2012, former CIA Director Michael Hayden predicted Wednesday as Iran dominates foreign policy debate even while national security officials appeared to dismiss the Islamic Republic’s latest threat to close the Strait of Hormuz.

“It is the single greatest destabilizing element right now with regards to global security,” Hayden told Fox News, adding that the outlook is not encouraging.

“Of all the things that I left, when I was in government, the situation with Iran, and particularly their nuclear program has continued on a trajectory that gets darker with each passing day, week and month. They seem on this inexorable arc in the direction of a nuclear capability and there seems to be nothing that we or other like minded nations can do that will stop them.”

Hayden who led the CIA from 2006 through 2009 and is now a principal with the Chertoff Group, which provides risk management and security services, said part of the problem is understanding the regime’s intent.

“This government and its decision-making processes are incredibly opaque. And here we are, as a government trying to get them to change their mind, change their mind in a process that it is very difficult for us to identify where are the leverage points.”

On Monday, Iran’s army chief warned against a U.S. carrier returning to the Strait of Hormuz, the critical passageway that the U.S. monitors as part of international agreement to keep the shipping lanes open. The USS John C. Stennis had vacated the area while Iran’s navy conducted war games in the Persian Gulf over a 10-day period.

The U.S. dismissed the threat as the result of Iran’s growing isolation and a lashing out at the international community. Hayden said the threat doesn’t even make logical sense since he doubts Iran would have the ability to close the strategic waterway for any length of time in any case.

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