CNN’s Fareed Zakaria: “A nuclear deal with Iran is the only way forward. If Mr. Trump decides to walk away, do you think the Iranians will break?”
Vice President Joe Biden answered: “I hope so. That’s what this is all about. If they are left dangling, it’s an invitation for more sanctions. That’s what the next president has to understand. The president has to understand that we do have options.”
Biden explained that when it comes to foreign policy, the President has to play one to one with the other branches of government, and only then get something done. The problems at hand involve a historic misunderstanding of Iran’s interests in the region.
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When it comes to nuclear weapons Iran seems to be the whole game, after all. They said they wanted to eliminate them and now they say they don’t. Biden explained that they are essentially negotiating from a position of weakness: The US withdrew last week, even though it wasn’t absolutely necessary, and the Europeans have to this point failed to make progress on a deal they are negotiating with the US and Israel to put Iran’s other nuclear program on hold. And it’s precisely because Iran is being untruthful to its own people that the US and its European allies can’t come together to make some progress.
Joe Biden: “My view is that the behavior of the regime, the approach of the regime, and the pursuit of the acquisition of nuclear weapons puts the United States and Israel at serious risk, and we shouldn’t be naive about that. That doesn’t mean that somebody might intentionally do something to us to blow up Israel, but it does mean that the record shows that this is going to happen.”
Fareed Zakaria: “Would you be willing to accept a deal that wiped out Iran’s missile development?”
Vice President Joe Biden: “I’d accept one that took Iranian missiles off the books, that declared an end to all kinds of development and research and development programs. Let’s see who goes first. We can do this, we can do it pretty quickly.”
Jana Winter, CNN