A foreign-relations expert offered blunt advice to President Donald Trump as negotiations between his administration and the Iranian regime deteriorate.
Joseph Cirincione, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, told MS NOW’s Alex Witt on “Alex Witt Reports” that Trump appears to have a way to make a stronger deal with the Iranian regime, but the president is blind to it because of how much he is blustering about the state of the war. His comments come at a time when Trump’s deal with Iran has become the “joke in Washington,” according to Cirincione, and the Iranian regime seems to be backing away from an agreement struck between the two sides over continued fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi refused to shake hands with Vice President JD Vance when the two met for peace negotiations, which some observers described as a “humiliation” for Vance.
While the two sides appear far apart on the war, Cirincione pointed out that Trump could still accomplish one of his major goals by preventing the Iranian regime from developing a nuclear weapon.
“The Obama approach to negotiation worked. If Trump hadn’t torn that up, we would have a fundamentally different relationship with Iran now, and Iran would still be many, many years away from the ability to build a bomb,” Cirincione said. “So the only hope is to go back to negotiations and to hope that because Iran has emerged stronger from this war … it doesn’t really need a nuclear weapon as much as they thought they did.”
“They thought they needed it for defense,” he continued. “Well, they have stronger deterrence right now.”
Cirincione said there is one catch that could make or break the talks.
“I think they are willing to compromise on the program if Trump can just shut up and let the negotiators get to work and force the Israelis to stop their war in Lebanon; you could get a deal,” he said. “You could still salvage this. But Trump has to act, not bluster.”
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