Krauthammer: Iran Stringing U.S. Along
CHRIS WALLACE: What's the problem with sitting down and talking?
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Because they are just stringing us along. Any negotiation that starts with a lie as large as the one you just heard -- Rouhani saying, "We are not seeking a bomb, and we never have" -- doesn't have good prospects. It is of course obvious that Iran is seeking the bomb, and here's a fact that underlies all the speculation. The IAEA reported in August that Iran has 186 kilograms of 20 percent enriched uranium. You need 250 to make a bomb. They are on the horizon, they are within reach. This is a goal Iran has had for decades. It will give it the dominance in the region over the Gulf Arabs, over everybody, that the Persians have sought for about 2,000 years. They have shown not an iota of response in the nuclear arena to any sanctions. Yes, it's hurt them economically, but our DNI has said in Congress there hasn't been any stoppage, any change in the nuclear pursuit. And the last part I think is this: The Iranians can see they are near the finish line. What they're worried about now is not economic sanctions which they have sustained and suffered for a few years. What they're worried about is an Israeli strike at the last minute. They have doubled the number of machines spinning uranium. They have been discovered to have a second program of plutonium. Any country that isn't seeking the bomb is not going to have a plutonium program parallel. They are within a horizon of reaching it. They have maybe half a year or a year to get there. They can forestall the Americans, engage in negotiations. The Israelis cannot strike, and they go nuclear.
WALLACE: So, would you say just ignore them? Don't even test them? Don't even say, well if you're really serious about this, President Rouhani, then do this?
KRAUTHAMMER: But your assumption is that we haven't negotiated or tested or proposed or made offers. We've been doing that for six years.
WALLACE: I understand that, but this is a new guy and a new foreign minister, Javad Zarif.
KRAUTHAMMER: Right, but he doesn't determine how the nukes are handled. That's all in the hands of Khamenei, who is a constant. He's been in power the whole time. Rouhani's a front man. He's not going to be the one who decides. You want to test him? Give him a proposal, and give him two weeks to respond. And then you say, you draw a red line, but who's going to believe a red line Obama's going to draw.
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