The United States has lost all leverage in the talks with Iran over a nuclear deal, according to Ali Safavi, U.S. spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, who appeared Thursday on Newsmax TV’s “America’s Forum” with former House Intelligence Chairman Pete Hoekstra and former CIA analyst Fred Fleitz to discuss the negotiations.
“The main reason is that, as you may imagine, the congressionally mandated sanctions brought the decision to the negotiating table in the first place and of course the president’s vehement opposition to any new sanctions has denied the United States any leverage in dealing with Iran,” said Safavi.
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“Remember that this is the 19th round of high-level talks since the United States and the Iranian regime began negotiating 18 months ago.”
The negotiations are moot, according to Fleitz, who said the U.S. surrendered to Iran two years ago, “when we decided to let Iran enrich uranium.”
“This administration has conceded the bomb to Iran,” according to Fleitz’s assessment.
“They decided Iran’s going to get the bomb anyway, let’s have an agreement that will try to rein them in with tough IAEA inspections. The problem is Iran’s not cooperating with the IAEA, never has, and the IAEA recently said that there was an agreement in 2013 that was key to this deal that Iran has completely defied.”
The correct path to dealing with Iran is sanctions, Safavi stressed.
“This is what has brought them to the table in the first place and that’s how the United States can demonstrate that it has some leverage over the Iranian regime. Remember, there’s no light at the end of the tunnel in negotiations. A bomb is waiting at the end of these talks.”
Fleitz said there is the growing possibility of a bipartisan veto-proof coalition in Congress to pass sanctions.
“We have to deal with the reality that with the status quo no agreement is better than this agreement,” he said. “This agreement will legitimize Iran’s nuclear program and destabilize the Middle East. The alternative isn’t war. The alternative is no deal and do everything we can to stop Iran from getting nuclear technology. Until we have a president with the resolve to push a real policy to stop Iran from doing so.”
The U.S. never had much leverage with Iran to begin with, at least not in Tehran’s eyes, according to Hoekstra. Even during the negotiations they have continued to be “very active” in their proxy activities.
“From Yemen, they’re controlling much of Iraq, through Syria, and into Lebanon,” he said. “They’ve achieved many of their objectives while these talks have been going on and we’re losing, we’ve lost all leverage we’ve had. We’re going to get a deal, the president wants a deal at all costs. It’s going to be a bad deal.”
