all threeobama raised americans in his phone call with president rouhani. on the last round in geneva, i had a separate conversation with the deputy foreign minister responsible for this, going over each of these cases and trying to find out whether there might be some avenues for getting their release. as i said, if there are, we will pursue them in every way possible. i also had breakfast with the swiss state secretary, who is our protecting power in tehran, who has gone repeatedly and asked constantly for consular visits, and went over some of the possibilities and some ideas the swiss had. we will pursue every idea that is brought to us. i know there is this notion about allegations of a prisoner exchange deal. they are frankly simply untrue. at this point, we have asked for humanitarian release. we did not specifically talk about these three americans in the context of the nuclear negotiations, because quite frankly, we do not want them to become pawns in the negotiation. we do not want iran to up the ante on the nuclear side or american citizens side

rouhani was not the choice of the supreme leader.rouhani was really a reflection of votes that were cast and it was a surprise and then he promised the people of iran in his election campaign that he was going to deliver change. he was going to try to reach out to the west and change the relationships and improve the economy. i think that is really what has been driving him. >> mr. ted poe of texas. >> thank you mr. secretary. i want to make it clear that i do not question the motives or the interest that you have, that the administration has, in doing what you do for the united states. i believe that you want to make the world safer for us and everyone else. agreement,ticular and this proposal, i disagree. it seems to me that we are giving away the farm and the rights as well. them dismantlee their nuclear weapons program, we are freezing the program which could be thought out at any time down the road. iran are my concerns about and the situation. i have two questions, if i do not talk too long. i first concern is of course, they a

rouhani -- hassan rouhani? how is he different than the previous president? does that change negotiations with iran, and should we change that tack because of him? guest: that is a good question. rouhani is not mahmoud ahmadinejad. their style is very different. he has put out a velvet approach to foreign policy. netanyahu has said recently, rouhani has an iron fist sheathed by a velvet glove. rouhani was a nuclear negotiator, and he even bragged that he had used at the cover to advance iran's nuclear efforts. while he may be president, he is not the supreme leader, which is khamenei. the guy who at the end of the day really controls the shots is ali khamenei. rouhani was chosen by a special, very small group that khamenei had picked. they chose acceptable candidates within a narrow band of political thought. i think people do, people i work with look forward to the day when people in iran have a genuine choice between alternatives politically, but they are a long way from it. to your point, in terms of how much wiggle room rouhani has, the iranians have two

you recall that rouhani was not the choice of the supreme leader, that rouhani was really a reflection of votes that were cast, and it was a surprise. and then he promised the people of iran in his election campaign that he was going to deliver change. he was going to try and reach out to the west, change the relationships, and improve the economy. i think that's really what's been driving them. >> mr. ted poe of texas. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. secretary. make it clear i do not question the motives or the interests that you have, the administration has, in what's doing best for the united states. i really believe that's what you want to do is make the world safer for us and everyone else. on this particular agreement and the proposal, i disagree. it seems to me that we're giving away the$x farm and the mineral rights as well. it seems to me also rather than make them dismantle their nuclear weapons program, we're just freezing the program which could be thawed out at any time down the road. these are my concerns about iran and this situation, then i'm going to have a

you recall that rouhani was not the choice of the supreme leader, that rouhani was really a reflection of votes that were cast, and it was a surprise. and then he promised the people of iran in his election campaign that he was going to deliver change. he was going to try and reach out to the west, change the relationships, and improve the economy. i think that's really what's been driving them. >> mr. ted poe of texas. >> thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. secretary. make it clear i do not question the motives or the interests that you have, the administration has, in what's doing best for the united states. i really believe that's what you want to do is make the world safer for us and everyone else. on this particular agreement and the proposal, i disagree. it seems to me that we're giving away the$x farm and the mineral rights as well. it seems to me also rather than make them dismantle their nuclear weapons program, we're just freezing the program which could be thawed out at any time down the road. these are my concerns about iran and this situation, then i'm going to have a

and that's what brought president rouhani to power. he was not necessarily the first choice of the hardliners inside of iran. now, that doesn't mean that we should trust him or anybody else inside of iran. this is a regime that came to power swearing opposition to the united states, to israel, and to many of the values that we hold dear. but what i've consistently said is even as i don't take any options off the table, what we do have to test is the possibility that we can resolve this issue diplomatically. and that is the deal that, at the first stages, we have been able to get done in geneva, thanks to some extraordinary work by john kerry and his counterparts in the p5-plus-1. so let's look at exactly what we've done. for the first time in over a decade, we have halted advances in the iranian nuclear program. we have not only made sure that in fordow and natanz that they have to stop adding additional centrifuges. we've also said that they've got to roll back their 20% advanced enrichment. so we're -- >> to how much? >> down to zero

those sanctions led in a direct line to the election of rouhani this past spring, to the negotiations and his outreach, and to where we are now. pressure on the economic front has been immense. >> the criticism is that the pressure that resulted on the iranians coming to the table -- if that is true, why let up on the pressure? >> the purpose of the sanctions was not sanctions for the sake of sanctions. it was to make clear to the people and the iranian leadership that the only way forward from immense pressure, which continues during the negotiations -- they get $6 billion to $7 billion relief, but the pressure continues. just last week, the united states put on additional sanctions. >> leading the iranian foreign minister say we may walk on this. the next day. >> my judgment is -- deeply involved with the sanctions effort -- the pressure is on iranians in several respects. economic pressure continues during the course of the negotiations, so they cannot just stall these negotiations and expect to get out from under pressure. it continues at a high level. we did additional last week.

elected a new president a more moderate president in summer two thousand and thirteen house haasan rouhani been successful in promising those changes. it was ironic that in the past few hours he graduated nicolas maduro of venezuela in municipal elections venezuela of course another or oil superpower the biggest oil resources in the world because rouhani has a reputation for taking new liberal action rather than the kind of chevy style reforms that took place in the oil super states in latin america rouhani has a very tough job ahead of him and he he only got through by a whisker but he has alliances within all sides of the ball the politics of iran whether he's going to succeed it's very difficult to say some people saying that if you only come ons around thirty five percent if you do the number crunching he's in a very precarious position i mean some people even comparing him to a moment morsi in the sense that there's such great hope for the same time what are his economic policies going to be and could neoliberal reform and privatization threaten his presidency write offs in the coming

rouhani is nothing the taxing trek on the united states. he is tweeting rosh hashanah, greetings to the jewish people. his foreign minister is extremist sophisticated and charming. they are putting forward proposals that are clearly constructed and flexible. they are serious about diplomacy. in the last rounds of negotiation, about the day was spent on just deciding when and where will the next meeting be. the iranians made suggestions such as kabul, because clearly kabul is a safe place to negotiate. [laughter] and they were playing games like this about everything. everything was a negotiation. now it takes about five minutes to decide this. the venue is already sent. it will always be geneva. the only thing is that they combine their schedule. so now there is no excuse. the iranians are really trying, that is the impression on the international scene. that has translated into a lot of countries who have agreed to these sanctions and have agreed to them very grudgingly because ultimately they don't like to be in the bad economic situation

i would like to see that with rouhani swuns in a while.couple of months ago, when the iranian people didn't have access to social media and to twitter. i think it's really important that if iran's trying to project a presence to the outside world, then it's got to have more reforms internally. >> now it's time for sports. ruhula's here. >> fullham beat aston villa, 2-0. the gunners have only lost twice in the league this season. first win at manchester united in 21 years. >> yes, he has done remarkably well because they had difficult games. played many of the big teams in the league and very strong position in the league. we just came out of a win at man united, there was a big warning before we play these teams, they have exceptional results before we play against them so that keeps us on our toes and we know for us it's a big game. >> on to italy, wicker has set up goals for second place roma, beating filantina 2-1, began the early kickoff. late kickoff in italy. with germany now, munich mass extended their lead in the bundisleg. bundisl

between tehran and washington rouhani is a. diplomat he will not be the one to back up from diplomacy first a phone call with obama while on his maiden visit to the un then the nuclear deal of the decade the iranians have shown time after time that there is no evidence that iran's nuclear program is anything but peaceful is something that has been ignored by the western media and western governments but this despite all that iran's real cillian is has forced these countries to accept. enrichment and again the russians and the chinese have played a very constructive role iran agreed to restrict and regulate its nuclear program but maintain the right to peaceful energy in return sanctions and rhetoric eased russia held diplomacy for sealing the deal the west said it's harsh sanctions. keurig the breakthrough. ten years on and iraq still reels from violence a decade since the u.s. led invasion but twenty thirteen was also one of the bloodiest years. the united states employed a classic divide and rule strategy pitting people of di

the rouhani government, liz, has only be in power about six months. how are they doing at home? >> reporter: well, they are able to tell their people that they are in negotiations with the united states and they have some limited sanctions relief. it's not going to really do much. $7 billion is a drop in the bucket for a country this size. but it has given people some hope that they may see more relief from the next year. they need to get inflation down from 40% to 25%-- a big job. >> pelley: liz palmer reporting for us tonight in tehran. thank you, liz. do antibacterial soaps do what the makers claim? the f.d.a. weighs in. and a brain disease found in football players is now linked to baseball. when the "cbs evening news" continues. across america people are taking charge of their type 2 diabetes with non-insulin victoza®. for a while, i took a pill to lower my blood sugar, but it didn't get me to my goal. so i asked my doctor about victoza®. he said victoza® is different than pills. victoza® is proven to lower blood sugar and a1c. it's taken once-a-day, any time, and comes in

after rouhani was elected, there was some acceleration leading up to the u.n. general assembly. you'll recall that rouhani was engaging in what was termed a charm offensive, right, and he was going around talking to folks. and at that point, it made sense for us to see, all right, how serious are you potentially about having these conversations. they did not get highly substantive in the first several meetings but were much more exploring how much room, in fact, did they have to get something done. and then as soon as they began to get more technical, at that point, they converged with the p5-plus-1 discussions. i will say this -- the fact of rhouhani's election -- it's been said that there's no difference between him and ahmadinejad except that he's more charming. i think that understates the shift in politics that took place in this election. obviously, rouhani is part of the iranian establishment and i think we have to assume that his ideology is one that is hostile to the united states and to israel. but what he also represents is the desire on the part of the iranian people

is rouhani a different kind of leader? tom is talking about black, and lightck, black, black. >> i think that sort of defines it. he was part of the revolution. he appears to be also a person who has evolved with time and who has begun to think in somewhat of a different fashion. i think that is worthy of exploitation. moreover, and i think it is even more important, iran is changing. iran was swept up i a revolutionary passion -- by a revolutionary passion. resentment on foreign expectations, wrapped extreme interference in iranian internal affairs that united them in a nationalistic passion and self-assertion. 20 years following, misery and frustration, fundamentalist extremism, a significant part of the iranian population increasingly began to view this as a kind of reactionary counterproductive self- destructive regime that needs to be altered, preferably peacefully. and these elections are in a sense a signal that there is in a population -- now perhaps a majority even, certainly in the urban areas -- at once to be li

you wouldn't have had the election of rouhani. the direct line between sanctions, rouhani elected, because we put tremendous pressure on the iranian economy. we isolated iran. so, this is a u.s.-led pressure to bring iran to the table. the test now is, whether the iranians can do they need to do. >> finally, one final question about north korea. we have seen these questions this weekend of merrill newman, 85-year-old korean war veteran detained by the north koreans, they're basically charging him with war crimes, is there any way to deal with this country? >> what the country should do is release mr. newman as of right now. they have had this political theater and they should release him in the interest of humanitarian gesture, his health and the right thing to do. this is an exceedingly difficult regime to do with. >> tom donilon, thanks very much. >>> when we come back -- the roundtable reacts from two surprise announcements. one from the pope and one from the president. >> so, you may want to stay in washington because of sasha

rouhani is a pragmatist, though. not a moderate, but a pragmatist. end of the day, chris, we have to negotiate this. it might be4óhan a good judgment rouhani, and particularly his foreign minister sharif, is just about the best deal we can get in terms of interlocutors within the republic. >> let's turn to china, which declared a new air defense zone over something must say prior to a couple of weeks ago i didn't know existed senkaku islands in the east china sea as they continue their territorial dispute with japan, which also claims control of the senkaku islands. what is it in your view, what is china up to and what do you think of the u.s. decision to send b-52s, surveillance planes, to challenge over that territory, to challenge china's new declaration that it has air rights over those islands? >> i was actually surprised by the chinese move, chris. i view it to be both dangerous and dumb. dangerous because you realize the first crisis in the bush administration was a collision between an american reconnaissance aircraft and chinese fighter and

will jump at any chance to discredit the current moderate president hassan rouhani any. surprise also led to the deaths of thousands of innocent people around the world particularly in central america reagan took money from the iranians and use that money to. well nuns in nicaragua but those are just the most obvious results of the october surprise again occur were able to free the hostages like he and bonnie solder had planned carter would have won re-election after all he was leading the most polls in the months leading up to the election and it reagan were never elected america would be a much more progressive nation. flashforward thirty three years and once again a democratic president is trying to negotiate in good faith with iran. president obama has made a deal with the moderate iranian president that if everything goes as planned will solve a major international crisis but like president carter's deal president obama's deal is opposed by republicans who have proven time and time again that they will stop at nothing to sabotage a democrat in the white house. and w

there is no difference between rouhani and the ayatollah on the nuclear ram. the ayatollah killed iranians who were asking for honest elections and more say in their lives? has he ever criticized the regime for putting people in jail and executing them randomly? no. when he was the negotiator in 2004, the current president, he bragged about the advancements under his watch of their nuclear program. so they're mistaken. there are no moderates in the government when it comes to iran, and i think the obama administration -- like this and other things -- are misreading the tea leaves. martha: i want to play an an exchange with your colleague, john mccain, who got very exasperated -- john kerry, who got very exasperated the other day. >> do you believe it is the goal of the supreme leader to destroy israel and the united states? >> well, you know, when you say do i believe, do i believe, i think their rhetoric is dangerous and threatening and, you know, incredibly counterproductive and damaging to any potential sort of rational relationship. martha: what do you thi

and that's what brought president rouhani to power.e was not necessarily the first choice of the hardliners inside of iran. now, that doesn't mean that we should trust him or anybody else inside of iran. this is a regime that came to power swearing opposition to the united states, to israel, and to many of the values that we hold dear. but what i've consistently said is even as i don't take any options off the table, what we do have to test is the possibility that we can resolve this issue diplomatically. and that is the deal that, at the first stages, we have been able to get done in geneva, thanks to some extraordinary work by john kerry and his counterparts in the p5-plus-1. so let's look at exactly what we've done. for the first time in over a decade, we have halted advances in the iranian nuclear program. we have not only made sure that in fordow and natanz that they have to stop adding additional centrifuges, we've also said that they've got to roll back their 20% advanced enrichment. so we're -- >> to how much? >> down to zero.

however, with rouhani there, and by the way, we had a ahmadinejad and now a smiling rouhani. i don't know how different they are. this agreement is both a good agreement and a bad agreement. i am not saying it is very good or very bad. it all depends on what happens at the end of the six months or if they extend it by another six months. if, at the end at six months or extension of six months, there is an agreement that guarantees that iran for at least 10 years is -- whatever sanctions you apply, whatever inspectors you send, is limited in time, but iran for at least 10 years will dismantle its nuclear capabilities, it is a great agreement. if there is not such an agreement, it is a very bad agreement. nobody knows. should we try? absolutely. we should absolutely try. and i think the president did the right thing by reaching out and trying to make a deal. and i don't think that additional sanctions -- all those people that talk about additional sanctions are the same people who said sanctions don't work. these are the same people. so make up your mind. do they work, or don't

and those sanctions lead in a direct line to the election of rouhani this past spring, to the negotiations and his outreach, and to where we are now with the iranians. this is a direct result of the pressure, and the pressure on the iranian, of course, on the economic front has been a-- . >> rose: that raise the criticism. that pressure resulted on the iranians coming to the table if that is true, why let up on the pressure. because they did not do everything you wanted them to do. >>it had to be tested. the purpose of the sanctions was not sanction force the sake of suction, not to pun shall for the sake of pun eschment. it rass rather to force a choice, a tonight make clear to the iranian moon and iranian leadership that the only way forward here from the immense pressure, which by the way continues during the negotiations. they get about 6 or 7 billion dollars in relief over six months but there is another 40 billion dollars worth of oil sales that they can't make and they will lose over the same period. so the pressure continue, indeed just last week the united states put on a decision

we don't know if the supreme leader himself believes that, clearly rouhani the president doesn't. he authorized these negotiations, he told me back in september when i interviewed him in new york at the u.n. general assembly he thought this interim deal could be done in three months. it was done even more quickly, i thought at the time it couldn't possibly be so. so i think he sees that ending sanctions, getting iran out from under this cloud is in the country's interest. whether he can pull the hard-liners and the revolutionary guard with him we don't know. >> what about popular opinion and how easy or difficult it is to gauge. you write about what you call a fat agency in the country. >> again, i was there for a short time. i don't want to overstate what i know. but certainly you sense a kind of shadow hanging over iran. this is a country that is on the verge of being china like developing economy, growing very rapidly. i talked to four different economists who talked about 10% growth rates being possible in the future. i met iranian scientists who had ideas for new companies an

hassan rouhani repeated an assertion that pursuit of nucle nuclear... >> the first children born at the end of apartheid are hearing about it. we are learning more about the generation known as the born free. >> a first-time visit to africa's parliament. these youths have no memory of that day in may 1994 when nelson mandela delivered a first address as president of south africa. now an opportunity for them to learn about the democracy path that was born at that time. >> the first step on this side, that side - it's got an emblem. the president sits there alone. this is where he has his own place. >> from the tour guide an anecdote demonstrating that the great can get it wrong. >> the former president was making is a speech in this house. once he was making a speech he noted a red button flicking next to him. he wanted to know what was going on. he had to stop and find out as to what was really going on. he was told, "mr president, you don't have to worry. no one is in danger. the reason that red light goes on is because you should have finished speaking a long time ago." >> underlying

is president rouhani under time pressure as well?at would happen if president obama decided to deliver? how much time would he get? respect, with all whether the enrichment is needed or not, and with americans they do not need 10,000 nuclear bombs. [laughter] >> we didn't need 70,000 either. >> the irradiance should have in -- the irradiance should have enrichment or not -- the iranians should have enrichment or not -- the time pressure is very important for the future of iran-u.s. relations. we must understand where the have broughttions iran to the negotiation table. i'm talking about the future. if americans come to the conclusion because of threats or sanctions or pressure, they may be able to come to a negotiation deal, -- >> that is an article of faith. >> sanctions harm iran, no doubt. no one can dispute this. there's no dispute. to package proposal -- look to the package proposal we gave in 2005. we were members of the nuclear negotiation team. it was a time when the iranian underr program was not the united nations. it was b

they have a government run right now by rouhani. the laws passed by the government are subject to confirmation by the religious establishment, the mullahs, who really are the governing authority of the country. they rely on the revolutionary guards to give them, to give their authority actual account. iran as an army, navy and air force. they've never been allowed any freedom of access. the revolutionary guard who runs it. so who in this triad, who has the real authority and how do knoyou know when you're talkingo one or the other of them? what kind of cachet they have to deliver. >> which is why i think if there is a reason to be optimistic, it is i think this. as madeline said, there were efforts to see if he could deliver. it could not. we, of course, than half all my dennis dodd u.s. the face of iran that is part of the best thing we could have asked for if you want to try to get sanctions. because he was a very -- ahmadinejad. use every object showcase for all the world to see. i think the point is there was a dysfunction in th

>> well, i think some of our questions focus on the fact that rouhani yesterday, in front of a bunch of students, many of them yelling death to america, were -- he was in the process of explaining to them that the centrifuges would never stop spinning and before that we have the foreign ministers of iran giving a speech in which he said the plutonium bomb making factory -- they are going to continue construction on it. as we understand the agreement, they were supposed to halt that construction. already we have an attitude, on the part of the iranians, that indicates that they are rushing forward and then you have a story that broke yesterday about continued enrichment of a new generation of centrifuges and i think we have very real questions on why we'd want to weaken sanctions at this point rather than strengthen them. >> i want to get your reaction to a couple of things president obama has said. first of all, he says that he puts the chance of success at 50/50 for this deal and he says if it turns out we can't make a deal, we are no worse off than we were without this agreement. y