Terry Gross

Let me see if I understand you correctly.

The way you describe the rubble over the deeply buried uranium in Iran, it sounds like they'd have a lot of trouble moving forward with their nuclear weapons program.

So it really doesn't pose a threat right now, and they have no missiles that can reach the U.S.

So am I summing that up accurately?

But we're not talking about those missiles.

Trump is talking about nuclear.

While we're talking about nuclear weapons, in one article you asked, like, is the era of nuclear weapons treaties over?

Because one with Russia just expired.

Can you talk a little bit about where Russia and China are in terms of nuclear weapons?

Let's take a short break here.

If you're just joining us, my guest is New York Times White House and national security correspondent David Sanger.

Our interview was recorded yesterday.

We'll be right back.

I'm Terry Gross, and this is Fresh Air.

So if we do attack Iran because the Trump administration is not satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations, there are several ways that this could go.

One is limited bomb strikes against key places, and another is go for the regime change.

In terms of regime change, I mean, what I've been reading—and you might have been the one who wrote this—

is that the Ayatollah Khamenei has a succession plan in place and plans on becoming a martyr.

So, you know, it's not like you could assassinate him and, you know, it's not going to change anything.

And there's probably a pretty long succession line there.