Jake Sullivan

And we gave them billions of dollars that they used for Hamas and Hezbollah.

Is that what happened in your mind?

They got sanctions relief as a result of the deal.

But, yes, John, they were complying with the deal.

Even the Israeli intelligence were saying they were complying with the agreement.

And then in 2018, President Trump pulled out of it, said this is the worst deal in human history.

If that's true, that is quite remarkable because there's been a lot of deals in human history.

He also said that about trade with Canada.

So you have to temper it.

Exactly.

So he pulls out of the deal.

And you're right, in the four years of the Biden administration, we got close at various points.

We negotiated to get back in, but we couldn't get back in, in part because the Iranians said, wait a second, we did a deal with Obama.

Trump pulled out of it.

How do we know that if you come in, you're not going to pull out of it again?

Then Trump comes back.

And when Trump comes back, there is actually an opportunity to do a deal because he's the guy who pulled out.

And just a few days before we started bombing Iran, the Iranians put a proposal on the table in Geneva that went a long way towards resolving the nuclear issue.

And my understanding is that our side, our negotiators simply didn't understand what they were being offered.

And they ignored it and decided to go ahead and strike.