Mike Waltz says Iranian officials are “good people,” but the Trump administration is “very focused” on the nuclear program.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said the Trump administration is “very focused” on addressing Iran’s nuclear program in an interview Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” as is the U.S. and Iran. they hold barbed speeches in Switzerland.
Earlier on Sunday, Vice President JD Vance and other US officials entered a conference room with Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a rare direct meeting between high-level delegates from both countries. Ghalibaf, in particular, is described in some quarters as a hardliner: He helped oversee the development of Iran’s missile program and allegedly bragged about cracking down on protesters.
“None of these top members of this extermination regime are good by any means,” Waltz said. “They certainly wouldn’t pass an FBI check. Nobody expects that. But, at the end of the day, the administration, our administration, takes a pragmatic approach.”
Waltz said Sunday that the administration is focused on preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, in contrast to what he called “policy misdirection” in previous US-Iran policies. But he added that “we know the kind of people we are dealing with,” citing the Iranians fatal attack with shows earlier this year and its history of arresting American citizens.
In the past, the Trump administration has imposed more a sweeping set of military objectiveswhen President Trump vowed to destroy Iran’s missile program and set the stage for the Iranians to overthrow the regime. However, recently, Mr. Trump has focused heavily on nuclear issues, saying it is “OK” for Iran to have ballistic missiles and not cause “regime change.”
On the US side, Waltz confirmed that “technical experts” of the Ministry of Energy participated in the discussions, and will help to deal with the “nitty gritty details” of the fate of Iran’s nuclear program, including its collection of highly enriched uranium.
The exact structure of the US-Iran nuclear deal remains unclear. Both sides signed a memorandum of understanding last week they said they had “agreed to solve the waste of the accumulated wealth,” by reducing the content identified as a “small” effect. But the document included few details, leaving a number of issues that will need to be addressed in technical negotiations over the next 60 days.
Mr. Trump has long said he does not want Iran to enrich uranium – a red line Iran has often rejected. Iran maintains that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, and US intelligence agencies found last year that Iran was not building weapons, although it has enriched uranium beyond the level needed for many non-military uses.
Waltz told CBS News on Sunday that the goal is that “Iran does not have a nuclear program,” seemingly in line with Mr. Trump’s red line. He said the Trump administration wants the program “destroyed forever, compared to the past, where it was going forward, and we were actually bribing them not to continue it.”
Any deal between the US and Iran, Waltz said, “will be about assurances,” without “trust” in Iran being required. And to comply with the agreement, Iran can get “carrots” in the form of sanctions relief.
Others Republicans in Congress they criticized the idea of lifting sanctions, warning that it would free up money for Iran to fund its regular military or finance regional proxies such as Hezbollah. Waltz said Sunday that any money Iran is allowed to collect from oil sales “will go to places we can still monitor,” and will not go into “the garbage bag.”
