Jeffrey Sachs

We freeze the money of other countries.

We sometimes just overtly take it and use it for something else.

It's rather obnoxious to my point of view and rather self-defeating in the long term for the United States to have the reputation that it just steals other people's

fiscal and financial resources, but we did that with Iran.

So what Iran has wanted is diplomacy.

And I come back again, they're nice people, they're diplomats.

And I sometimes tell them, you don't even know who you're dealing with here, how nasty this is, how difficult this is.

No, no, no.

We want an agreement, Professor Sachs.

Do you know who we might speak to about negotiations and so forth?

Very civilized, very nice people.

In 2015, such an agreement was reached.

the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the JCPOA.

It was reached not only with the United States, but with Britain, with France, with Russia, with China, and with Germany.

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, called 5 plus 1.

Then it went to the UN Security Council, where it was unanimously backed.

Then came the Zionist lobby in the United States.

Oh, no, you can't have an agreement with Iran.

They're the evil empire.

You can't do this.