back on the show is middle east expert and former cia intel analyst ken pollack. s not known trust in about 30 years, how do we assess whether or not rowhani is any different from ahmadinejad? he says he has the heir of the supreme leader and has control of their nuclear as pieration. what are the actions that need to come out of iran to prove the point rowhani is as advertised? >> let's start with the words. it's important, everyone is saying, these are just words and meaningless. in the iranian context they are not meaningless. it's takes a lot for a iranian politician to stand up and say the things rowhani has, saying the holocaust took place and wants to end iran's nuclear program and willing to make compromises with the united states. these are very tough things for iranian politicians to do. we've seen other politicians take hits for it but we do need to go beyond that. we'll need to see a willingness on the part of the iranians to accept real curbs on their enrichment program and accept real monitoring and inspections so we can have confidence that they are

and ken pollack -- who is celebrating rosh hashanah today and is not on the panel -- this is the regional focus that will have to be determined. within its borders, you could argue that syria, perhaps is something that we could have ignored and it ignore for many years. michael the ran predicted that we would be heading for trouble and it would not stay within its borders. this is where the u.s. strategic interests are engaged. >> i would like to add a bit to that. since the assad dynasty took power in 1970, we have had a hostile relationship with syria. every president from nixon until now has maintained sanctions. we have lived with that. this is a problem, but this is a manageable problem. but the spillover from syria spills over into the things that matter to us. my own view is that israel and turkey are pretty kick goal of taking care of themselves, especially the israelis. that is why i think one thing the president has done over the last two years, that everyone will agree with, is to try to strengthen jordan to handle the spillover from syria. but now this is almost a flood. degra

joining me are bloomberg view columnists and ken pollack, senior fellow at the brookings institution,he middle east policy and the author of "unthinkable iran, the bomb." it's september. your book is coming out, ken. >> it is. >> we look forward to reading that. >> i need a longer bio. >> your tweets are enough and funny. >> thank you. >> so here we have israel has been on the sidelines for the last couple of days. now it's very clear that israel views this in its interest to go after syria. what is the sort of view in the middle east of the way the administration has handled this so far. >> there's been a lot of confusion and a lot of perplex city as to what exactly the administration is doing. i'm getting bombarded by calls in the region over why they're doing what they're doing, why they're sequencing it. >> why ask congress. >> essentially after the president announces he's going to go, but he's going to go to congress first. it's reinforced a sense within the region that the administration is not committed to this and there are actually a lot of people i think both arab and israe

. >> ken pollack, author of "unthinkable, iran, the bomb, and the american strategy."ok. thanks very much. >> thanks for having me back. >> can apple bring back some of its old magic in an announcement earlier this hour. apple unveiled it's new iphone 5c, a cheaper version of its iconic phone in several colors, retail $99. also their new iphone ss, new version of their high end, reva and styles. the idea is to sell a lot of cheaper versions in developing nations. can save by sharing. like carpools... polly wants to know if we can pick her up. yeah, we can make room. yeah. [ male announcer ] ...office space. yes, we're loving this communal seating. it's great. [ male announcer ] the best thing to share? a data plan. at&t mobile share for business. one bucket of data for everyone on the plan, unlimited talk and text on smart phones. now, everyone's in the spirit of sharing. hey, can i borrow your boat this weekend? no. [ male announcer ] share more. save more. at&t mobile share for business. ♪ your husband left his cell phone on. and you're not necessarily proud of that.

back here in the states, i want it bring in middle east expert ken pollack. he's a senior fellow at the brookings institution center for middle east policy. his new book "unthinkable iran: the bomb and american strategy" com comes out on tuesday. ken, ayman was talking about the impact of a strike on syria on iran. you write extensively about the country and to what ayman was saying in his report. >> well, i think that obviously -- look, we've got to recognize there is the potential for some form of retaliation. by the same token, when you look at the main actors who would want to retaliate, iran, syria itself, hezbollah, each of them has a whole lot of other things on their plate. neither of them is looking to pick a fight with the united states now. all of them have a habit of making threats that they don't follow through on. so this could all be bluster, just meant to deter the united states from a strike. it would be absolutely foolish for the united states to assume they won't. >> ken, help us understand what the end game might look like in syria. let's g

and ken pollack -- who is celebrating rosh hashanah today and is not on the panel -- this is the regional focus that will have to be determined. within its borders, you could argue that syria, perhaps is something that we could have ignored and it ignore for many years. michael the ran predicted that we would be heading for trouble and it would not stay within its borders. this is where the u.s. strategic interests are engaged. >> i would like to add a bit to that. since the assad dynasty took power in 1970, we have had a hostile relationship with syria. every president from nixon until now has maintained sanctions. we have lived with that. this is a problem, but this is a manageable problem. but the spillover from syria spills over into the things that matter to us. my own view is that israel and turkey are pretty kick goal of taking care of themselves, especially the israelis. that is why i think one thing the president has done over the last two years, that everyone will agree with, is to try to strengthen jordan to handle the spillover from syria. but now this is almost a flood. degra

and ken pollack -- who is celebrating rosh hashanah today and is not on the panel -- this is the regionals that will have to be determined. within its borders, you could argue that syria, perhaps is something that we could have ignored and it ignore for many years. michael the ran predicted that we would be heading for trouble and it would not stay within its borders. this is where the u.s. strategic interests are engaged. >> i would like to add a bit to that. tookthe assad dynasty power in 1970, we have had a hostile relationship with syria. every president from nixon until now has maintained sanctions. we have lived with that. this is a problem, but this is a manageable problem. syriae spillover from spills over into the things that matter to us. my own view is that israel and turkey are pretty kick goal of taking care of themselves, especially the israelis. that is why i think one thing the president has done over the last two years, that everyone will agree with, is to try to strengthen jordan to handle the spillover from syria. but now this is almost a flood. and deter. no one thinks