to cross talk around us relations i'm joined by john doe in washington she is a fellow at the stimson center at the brookings institution we also have time barry he is the washington d.c. director of code pink and in irvine we cross to so ryan suppose she is an independent researcher and writer on cross-talk rules in fact folks i mean she can jump in anytime you want if i go to you first in washington in politics and diplomacy i've always been told never use the following six words this time it will be different this time will it be any different between the two countries the united states and the islamic republic of iran well we certainly hope so we've seen that the united states has had sanctions on iran since the one nine hundred seventy five they've been. boosting the rhetoric it's time for the president to meet i'm appalled at the language of will they meet in the halls and will they be able to shake hands we saw that the president of iran put out

a. asking for the united states to come to a meeting to to talk as sovereign nations and to come to an agreement as barack obama in two thousand and eight in his election bid promised he would do and that's what the majority of the american people want they want the two presidents to come together have a have a conversation that leads to an end to these horrible sanctions that are killing or only the people of iran and the governments involved geneve can it be different this time around and if it can be different this time around why well there are a lot of reasons that it's different this time first of all we have what appears to be sort of different political culture now in iran. more moderate faction is now holds the president say ayatollah hominidae has endorsed president rouhani has calls for. some sort of progress on the nuclear issue and this is very different

from previous presidents even the former president mohammad hot to me who was a reformer so he was much more liberal than president rouhani but he did not have the backing of the supreme leader so we've seen even the leader place his credibility on the line ahead of this meeting and this is why it's so important and this is why it's different you also have syria in the background are ron sees an opportunity because it has so much power in syria it's arming the opposition the revolutionary guards are inside fighting inside syria so i suspect that if the iranians are smart they will come to the negotiating table and say ok we're ready to move to some sort of transitional government without assad but this is what we want in return we want as you mentioned some of the sanctions to be lifted and so i

suspect that that's going to be part of the conversations if indeed they go on so ryan irvine so what will you know all the waiting just has to be good now and they have to respond to what washington wants but what about their needs ok what does washington have to do peter i'm not sure where the lady from brookings gets their information from as for a serious concern this is simply about iran and as you mentioned there is really nothing much different iran had offered to engage previously iran did suspend its nuclear program in two thousand and three for two years then as an act of good faith still while one has a lot of hope of the current discussions surrounding the current discussions and to borrow from martin luther king you know one would face fina disappointment but one should never give up indefinite hope i think there is hope there but one has to understand that washington needs to. change washington the nuclear program the

civilian nuclear program is an excuse for washington to impose a sanctions it's not a reason and until they come to terms with. it can live on will never give up its rights. going to jump into your head hurt. ok we actually have a fire alarm here but i just want to jump in to say that this conversation is a little too slanted and biased it's it's both sides that need to compromise it's not just washington iran has a whole history of deceiving the international community about its nuclear program it's documented it's on record this isn't information that should be debated but i've been told now i have to leave the building so much if i were you are now you are being liars i think you have. i think you need to. for one thing brookings one knows that it's actually a pro israel think tank that does spew out these reports and there's inaccuracy is

so i think that you need to come to terms with what is actually real and what is not and there is no there is absolutely not one iota of truth in what you just mentioned iran has always been transparent about this nuclear program in fact in one thousand eight hundred two iran did say that he wants to start up his nuclear power plant again in one thousand eight hundred three using its own uranium in as one in one thousand eight hundred three the i went to iran with the aim of helping iran do this which is what the i.a.e.a. is supposed to do as are all the p five the nuclear power countries but under pressure from the united states the i.a.e.a. start helping iran they pulled back and for years and years and years iran solicited help from different countries and every time pressure from pressure from the united states they stopped the development the program it's never been secret

and this is just in accurate it's always been out to china it was going to you know i'm watching another program immediately going to tell you no it was something was mentioning i think it's very interesting it has really nothing to do with iran's nuclear ambitions it's always been about regime change ok the americans still have gotten over the hostage crisis i'm. remember it vividly but it's still regime change that's what they want how can you have a dialogue if that's the endgame for washington well you absolutely can't and i think the american public has gotten over the iran. revolution a long time ago it's these hardliners in congress but they're being pressed by this foreign lobbying group that's allowed to walk around on capitol hill without. registering as a foreign lobbying group i'm referring to a pac the american israel political affairs committee but we saw the massive failure of apec to try and get the united states to be involved in another military action in the middle east in syria they even admitted their failure we see again

it's going to boil down to whether or not iran can convince this administration to keep the hard line and i just like to also put in the fact that for over the last ten years i've been told that iran is six months away from having a nuclear weapon once again netanyahu has said there are six months away from having nuclear weapons if the united states doesn't continue these sanctions add more sanctions and as we saw in iraq when madeleine albright former ambassador to the united states was asked a direct question was the death of five hundred thousand iraqi children worth it she said yes and this administration is carrying on in that tradition of they don't care how it affects the average iranian person they only care what political advantages they can get out of it in washington so why is it is this just

a nurse in the white know it i mean it's interesting because all my adult life you know when i was living in the united states is that iran is simply the enemy and it just you know mass media the networks just assume that ok without knowing much about iran i mean it what it can and ran do to get someone's attention beyond just capitulating which it won't i really do. at there is no and as i'm sure i can do i mean mr rowhani is doing a fine job of presenting iran's position and even his charm offensive as they call it is offensive to the hardliners to the neo cons in washington they they they've they've put certain labels on him they're calling him a wolf in sheep's clothing and what have you so you cannot. face the american population with charm and the policymakers and you can't face them with rhetoric no matter what you do you damned so iran has little choice here in this matter unless as i said washington is the one that needs to change is the attitude and it's very

hard for washington to do this because it's being controlled by outside powers as your guest said and it's a very important to understand that none of this benefits washington there are only a certain small elites in washington do benefit and the military industrial complex the media and the lobby groups but the american people are suffering as much as the perhaps not dined due to sanctions but all the wealth that is being spent on wars and fill in the pockets of the war mongers is being taken away from the american people so american people here somehow the iranians the people of iran and the american people have to come together and understand that they're both being harmed and this message has to be conveyed and in this age of internet and communication fortunately it's not so easy for the washington political elite to cover up their actions to mislead the people the word is getting out there and it's just the syria

war was stopped and i think temporarily pretty much because the american public were not behind it the wizened up and i hold and whining and i don't know what you're going to say when you say that about what are you trying to wait let me go to tell you before we go to the break you know winds are not the same people that brought us to war in iraq are the ones talking about iran i mean it's remarkable the regular experts on both countries. this is a this is a failure of the news media in washington d.c. i see the same experts i don't see medea benjamin co-founder of code pink on c.n.n. on m.s.n. b c on fox t.v. continually over and over talking about the failures of the bush administration the obama administration in its wars in the middle east in the wars in afghanistan pakistan yemen the united states is stretched out all over the globe fighting wars with drones we need to we need to bring truth to power in the fact the matter is they got it wrong we need the american public needs to understand there are even

still people like john mccain who the other day even said that you know when you're well not very i hope larry i don't you know i have to go to a short break and i have to break we'll continue our discussion on iran and the united states state party.

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up to. fifty. welcome back to cross talk were all things considered i'm peter lavelle to remind you we're discussing the relationship between to run in washington. or kids or i'd like to go back to you in irvine because you got up so early for this program you know where the end of the year the first part of the program time mentioned john mccain and we all know that john mccain sent his our bed to publication proverb it is hardly in existence i have lived here for fifteen years i've never seen the newspaper but he apparently thinks it's an important newspaper in russia so so raw you know the american people are told day in day out for

fifteen years twenty years thirty years around is the greatest threat to the united states how is that possible if americans think that iran is such a threat to them then they are the ones who should be subjugating their rights to iran but that's not the case i think america and israel specifically they need in any me to divert the attention away from the people against iran is a threat in that it's claimed its independence it was almost a colony of the americans and they claim this independence and it's something that america which is an empire a declining empire can cannot afford to have countries getting away from under its influence and becoming self-sufficient so in that's as america's weary of iraq but as far as a threat i mean right now we're talking about iran and syria whereas in israel they have just occupied homes that belong to palestinians three hundred militants attacked and kept in and took over the i'll ask mosque in jerusalem so as long as

there is a threat out there that the israelis and their hard. in america's new york cause i call them point the finger too we don't need to discuss the issues that are actually creating conflict or that are illegal that are breaking every law of more ality and international law so that's why iran is presented as a threat and peter i think i would very much like for your audience to google if they can in one nine hundred seventy five or prior to the iranian revolution and the shah of iran was a poster boy for nuclear power plants edison company he had his uniform and his medals and america bragged about how important it was to have nuclear energy and now the americans are saying that iran cannot have nuclear its own nuclear civilian program so if anybody in iran is under the impression that is the regime that must be eliminated that but how can you possibly blame them i mean they killed the scientists they have the they tried to stage

a coup against iran then as it signed the return very alert imposing sanctions on them so yes and so iran is the one that should be apprehensive about washington and very often it's being said that iran is the one buying time because they want to develop a nuclear bomb what this is for us i think that washington in fact in israel are buying time for one thing they want to make sure they have an alternative route to the strait of hormuz which is very important to the world economy they do not have that yet so they cannot risk an attack on iran for sale at the moment and it's important to understand that if iran is reaching out the way it has with the full backing of the iran supremes guide. the harmony then there is if there is if these talks don't go anywhere then we can actually look and see who the culprit is and this is why it's important this is why mr rouhani his

message is so important and the very able job or desire if the foreign minister. it's very interesting if you're going to if i'm going to tell you and washington doesn't want to let's talk about watch the entire it seems to me that obama's hands are tied i mean he has a lot less wiggle room here because of the lobby that you mention in the in the bad history that the two countries which i would primarily put most of the blame on the united states his hands are tied he doesn't really have any opportunity he can shake a hand i guess but what good will it do if the entire establishment that has him put on the policy on iran they don't they won't budge they simply won't budge because even if they get a good deal they don't want to deal they can accept yes i'm just a little stunned because isn't he supposed to be the the most powerful man in the world i don't know where they were on one hand they want to say american exceptionalism and the most powerful person on the planet is the present united states yet he can't even shake hands in the hallway with the president of iran.

i find it i don't believe the president's hands are tied the president came into office in two thousand and eight saying he was going to bring peace with iran he was going to talk to them as to sovereign nations and he's never done that read trita parsi he's single roll of the dice the united states never made an effort to work with iran and yes he is influenced heavily by this. technically it's very illegal that israel has a foreign lobbying group on capitol hill that's not registered with the with the justice department look that up as well but they are powerful apac well as we saw in the syrian debacle that they came up well short they they were i was i was on capitol hill i had a protest in front of the house office buildings and you saw them in the hordes in the thousands the is a packed lobbyist coming there and they got nowhere now the other the other issue

is that was brought up as far as this syria. war on syria from the united states. it was discussed overwhelmingly in the halls that the reason that side but would have these chemical weapons was a deterrent to israel's over two hundred atomic weapons and these weapons are pointed at syria and it's. if he does have and apparently does have these chemical weapons it's because israel is such a dominant power in the middle east without stating the fact that they do have nuclear weapons you go on any of these talk shows and no one will ask the direct question what about israel's nuclear power and it's only right that iran should have nuclear power so it can sell its oil overseas iran does not process refine oil if they were if they were able to sell their oil and use nuclear power for their energy consumption at home this would make iran

a very powerful very wealthy nation and it was last thing and angela's ok and then dependent right you said i'm from los angeles and los angeles is what they call it toronto is and a lot of san julian those who are. run descent persians there in los angeles are overwhelmingly say no attack on iran let's sit down and talk they want to go home they want to have businesses in iran it's time to end this blockade like the infamous blockade on cuba ok it's time let me go to we have a lot of examples out there we have north korea that won't disarm we had iraq the did libya did and we know what happened to iraq and we know what happened to libya i mean anyone in iran in rational thinkers could say why should we go down this path i mean they put out these overtures and then they invade you. well that's right peter and also mr netanyahu has ordered that iran should stop

enrichment altogether the re i think what's being left out is why iran is to enrich uranium it's not just for the nuclear power plants but iran had a huge cheer and it still has a huge share in europe if the shocks iran investor knew you were there and they enrich uranium and they refused to supply iran so iran cannot develop its oil fields you know the sanctions in iran in one thousand nine hundred six sanctions that has nothing to do with the nuclear power plants and they can't invest and it's all feels it can't have any foreign investment it can't have nuclear energy so what are the iranians supposed to do you can't have seventy five million people perish because mr netanyahu is on this point figure somebody else plus the fact that iran needs these medical isotopes wish to put on the table of the twenty percent enriched isotopes for medicine or purposes now because of the sanctions because there can be no banking going back and forth their children women and old people

dying because america needs to impose its will and it just shows you that america united states which is which calls itself the front of human rights to actually kills women children and the helpless that's not greatness that's weakness free and i think that you know iran and russia are now the ball there are working more and more together and hopefully there will come a point where. even if you wanna answer sacrifice i think that a lot of them would rather die standing got into line you know you need it and they will not stop all that they would want to work was watching you know you try it seems to me that in the last ten years particularly the last ten years is that the washington's has given up on diplomacy in the region and i include around there i mean they're kind of out of practice here because when i listen to what the iranian officials in this charm offensive which. called and then i look what's going on in washington you know they just say well no this is

a they're pathological liars and never told the truth except the exception then we know we're one country we haven't even mentioned here saudi arabia i mean they're certainly not interested any kind of charm because they're the least harmful people on the planet yeah i just like i said in both hearings on our rivals and now let me go to the we've got a tie here let me go to ty go ahead ty first jump in. i sat in on both the airing. where the united states was trying to push the american public into getting behind them on a rush to war with syria where they have no business being and. the cheap to full diplomat of the united states is our secretary of state john kerry and on his right was the secretary of defense chuck hagel and then general dempsey who both of which said almost nothing and our our chief diplomat was the one who was trying to push war the idea of the diplomat is supposed to stop war it's time that the that our

diplomats take the front take the front of all the problems that we have and put the war people back in their barracks as they say and let's and let's get some conversations going on but also your guest had had some amazing things to say i think one thing that would change the dynamic in this situation is if we saw the suffering of the people in iran if we saw the words of the normal person the worker in tehran the farmer out in the near mashad if we if we saw the faces of the people we heard their words they would the american public would identify with them immensely because we have a lot in common with the people of iran and it's unfortunate that our government is what's standing in the way and it's not the iranian government and when they use this awful rhetoric. the axis of evil and you know they're liars and things like this does not help we need real diplomats doing the real job the states wants i

think and i think you know it should be argued with on the with you on that point because if we don't see a lot of diplomas to go we'll see what happens here many thanks again my guest in washington and in irvine and thanks to our viewers for watching us here in our d.c. you next time and remember cross talk rules. mullins you want to. make up something that is quite simply.

was no way over. clearly they were just at the wrong place at the wrong time. and sold to the u.s. or turned over to the u.s. for. the sole that could be buried alive. was saved with great effort. to they wanted to turn me into a terrorist so it was they wanted me to admit that i was a member of al qaeda and the taliban but i fought with them. not about time i didn't even know what al qaeda is nevertheless there are people. brave enough to start a fight. something's going to be done that's going to be done by me i have a short amount of time to go but it's going to impact me i'd be prosecuted but it's going to impact. a wife my daughter. the one time a trap. monarchy.

the first. time. thanks. to. good. eh. eh eh. eh eh. eh lists.

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well known told me my language as well but i will only react to situations i have read the reports. for instance or no i will leave them to the state department to comment on your letter pledge the muslims legit lizard yell a car is on the dock in melbourne there they go no more weasel words when you have a direct question and be prepared for a trades when you have a bunch be ready for a little printout of speeds and little down the freedoms of costs. more news today. and these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. operations the day.

president hassan rouhani says suspicions surrounding iran's nuclear program claiming there's no place for atomic weapons in his country and his address to the u.n. general assembly. greenpeace are accused of piracy after trying to storm a russian oil rig while the country hosts an international forum to secure. the. citizens people of a tiny. being squeezed to make for a u.s. military bags.