diff --git a/roles/base/tasks/main.yml b/roles/base/tasks/main.yml
index a56e3567b3..24281c3ef5 100644
--- a/roles/base/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/roles/base/tasks/main.yml
@@ -145,6 +145,7 @@
    - ../templates/iptables/iptables.{{ env }}
    - ../templates/iptables/iptables
   when: not inventory_hostname.startswith('fed-cloud09')
+  validate: "/etc/sysconfig/iptables --text %s"
   notify:
   - restart iptables
   - reload libvirtd