Trita Parsi

Some of the most valuable things I got from those interviews were not my questions of them.

is that they almost always kept me for another 30 minutes, another 60 minutes interviewing me, trying to see what I had found out.

And government officials, they always know how to conceal their true motives, et cetera, when you ask them a question.

When they ask a question, they reveal what they're actually looking for.

I've noticed.

And there you could clearly see the premise was not that Ivan is an existential threat.

The premise was not that Ivan is irrational or that it is suicidal.

It was exactly the opposite, that they were dealing with an adversary that was far more cautious, calculating and rational.

But in order to get the United States on your side, you have to portray a completely different image, that Iran was suicidal, that it was irrational.

Because if they're irrational and suicidal, it means diplomacy doesn't work.

Of course.

Deterrence doesn't work.

And because they're suicidal, the only thing that will work is to take preemptive military action.

And I worried that by now, they just don't have the creativity to think in a different manner and adjust.

I think, look, they have a track record of successfully, not only preventing diplomacy between the US and Iran,

sabotaging talks when they were happening.

Even when a deal was struck, fight tooth and nail against it in Congress.

And even when they lost, two years later, convinced the next American president to walk out of it.

I remember I sat down with some folks from APAC after the JCPOA.

I was very involved in that fight.