David Marchese

But let's try one thing before, as the president said, I am forced to do the obvious. Right.

That's right. And this worked. Steve Witkoff, Trump's old friend and favorite negotiator, goes from talking to Vladimir Putin in Moscow to flying to Oman, meeting the Iranian foreign minister. And this Saturday, they're going to begin the first serious discussions on a new Iran deal. We'll be right back.

That's right. And this worked. Steve Witkoff, Trump's old friend and favorite negotiator, goes from talking to Vladimir Putin in Moscow to flying to Oman, meeting the Iranian foreign minister. And this Saturday, they're going to begin the first serious discussions on a new Iran deal. We'll be right back.

So, of course, there's no unanimity inside any of these groups, inside Iran and inside the United States. But given that, what the Iranians want is something as close to the 2015 agreement with Obama as they can get while recognizing that Donald Trump isn't going to take anything that looks exactly like something Barack Obama negotiated.

So, of course, there's no unanimity inside any of these groups, inside Iran and inside the United States. But given that, what the Iranians want is something as close to the 2015 agreement with Obama as they can get while recognizing that Donald Trump isn't going to take anything that looks exactly like something Barack Obama negotiated.

They would like to hold on to their facilities the way they did in the Obama era and They are willing to back off on their big enrichment of near-bomb-grade fuel. But they want to retain their capability because, frankly, as they have said, they don't trust the United States and they don't trust Donald Trump because he walked away from the last agreement the U.S. signed.

They would like to hold on to their facilities the way they did in the Obama era and They are willing to back off on their big enrichment of near-bomb-grade fuel. But they want to retain their capability because, frankly, as they have said, they don't trust the United States and they don't trust Donald Trump because he walked away from the last agreement the U.S. signed.

So they want to give some space between them and a bomb. but without giving up the capability of racing forward if everything turns south. Okay, I'm going to guess that this is not what President Trump wants. Well, we don't know exactly yet what President Trump wants. There is a lot of strategic incoherence inside the Trump administration. What have they said so far?

So they want to give some space between them and a bomb. but without giving up the capability of racing forward if everything turns south. Okay, I'm going to guess that this is not what President Trump wants. Well, we don't know exactly yet what President Trump wants. There is a lot of strategic incoherence inside the Trump administration. What have they said so far?

Well, they started off by saying what they want is full dismantlement of the Iranian nuclear infrastructure. Nothing less than full dismantlement. And what does that mean, though? So what the United States would like to do is blow up the facilities, take all the fuel that they've got in the country and ship it out again and basically leave the Iranians with nothing that they could rebuild quickly.

Well, they started off by saying what they want is full dismantlement of the Iranian nuclear infrastructure. Nothing less than full dismantlement. And what does that mean, though? So what the United States would like to do is blow up the facilities, take all the fuel that they've got in the country and ship it out again and basically leave the Iranians with nothing that they could rebuild quickly.

That's right. They're not interested in giving up everything. And they made it clear as the negotiation started, if you're asking for us to give up the whole program, then might as well stop this negotiation now. Yeah.

That's right. They're not interested in giving up everything. And they made it clear as the negotiation started, if you're asking for us to give up the whole program, then might as well stop this negotiation now. Yeah.

So, Michael, it's been really fascinating, right? Because Steve Witkoff, who really had no experience in dealing with nuclear issues before, announced on Fox News the other day that actually he's just interested in capping the program.

So, Michael, it's been really fascinating, right? Because Steve Witkoff, who really had no experience in dealing with nuclear issues before, announced on Fox News the other day that actually he's just interested in capping the program.

And making sure that we could verify that the Iranians were not producing uranium at 60% purity, but instead at a much lower number, what you'd use for power plants. David, that sounds a lot, a lot like the deal Obama reached. If it sounds a lot like the old Obama agreement, it's because it's a lot like the old Obama agreement. Right. But, you know, the demands keep changing.

And making sure that we could verify that the Iranians were not producing uranium at 60% purity, but instead at a much lower number, what you'd use for power plants. David, that sounds a lot, a lot like the deal Obama reached. If it sounds a lot like the old Obama agreement, it's because it's a lot like the old Obama agreement. Right. But, you know, the demands keep changing.

So on Tuesday, Witkoff backed off of his comments about merely capping the nuclear program, and he repeated the call for eliminating the entire nuclear program. So we don't know yet what the exact terms will be. But I'm sure that there will be features that let Trump claim he got a lot more than Obama did, that his deal's really different.

So on Tuesday, Witkoff backed off of his comments about merely capping the nuclear program, and he repeated the call for eliminating the entire nuclear program. So we don't know yet what the exact terms will be. But I'm sure that there will be features that let Trump claim he got a lot more than Obama did, that his deal's really different.

That's certainly right. So he's going to have to prove that it's longer and stronger. Remember, the original deal was going to expire in 2030. Well, that seemed a long way away when they were doing this in 2015. But it's only five years from now. It's not very long. So it would certainly have to have a much longer timeline.