Wendy Sherman

Well, I find it difficult to believe that Vice President Vance, Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner can be successful in two weeks.

I fully suspect that the negotiations will continue beyond two weeks if they get any traction at all.

And I think part of the reason the vice president is there is because Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Jared Kushner who has no former role in the government, they don't have credibility with Iran because twice before when they were negotiating with Iran, we attacked.

And it's hard to believe that someone's going to keep negotiating with you if two other times they've attacked in the midst of negotiations.

I think it's very hard to be that reductive on both counts.

There are parts of Iran that are weaker.

There's no doubt.

They don't have the Navy they once had.

They don't have the missile programs they once had.

They don't have the nuclear programs they once have.

They can rebuild all of that.

And if they get millions of dollars in tolls and sanctions relief from the United States, they will be able to rebuild all that capacity faster.

But in the moment, they have been set back.

The United States definitely, in my view, has been set back.

We have just spent billions of dollars.

We have reduced our inventory of weapons that we may need for other theaters.

We have undermined our alliances.

We have put Russia and China in stronger positions.

We have removed sanctions, oil sanctions from Russia and oil sanctions from Iran already, putting money in their coffers, giving Russia more money so they can prosecute their horrible war, an illegal war against Ukraine.

I could go on and on about the challenges and, of course, two really important things.