This is CBS. Hi on the World. I'm John Batchel. Iran, the suspect nuclear weapons program. What is to be done?

The Trump administration faces the question all over again. I welcome John Bolton, very carefully writing about the choices ahead for the Trump administration, former National Security Advisor, former ambassador to the United Nations.

The headline in the New York Times now, right now, John, suggests that Iran is entertaining

the idea that they may talk with Mr. Trump.

That is a puzzle to me because Iran is now actively engaged in making

war on our enemy Israel. So setting aside the idea that the New York Times believes talk is

incoming missiles, I go immediately to the point that you make in your article that the Trump administration believes

maximum pressure will bring results. What did maximum pressure do in your memory, John, in the

first term? Good evening to you. Good evening. Well, the problem was that it really wasn't maximum

pressure. You know, the sanctions are when the day they're announced,

that's always their best day, but the target of sanctions just doesn't sit there and take it.

They find ways to evade them. They try and mitigate the consequences. And honestly, kind of across the

board, our sanctions enforcement and follow-up is not what it should be. Now, to be sure,

when Biden came in in their desperate surge to get back to the 2015 nuclear deal, sanctions

enforcement dropped dramatically, and Iran was able to sell a substantial amount of oil, particularly

to China, during the Biden administration, which gave it a lifeline that it didn't have.

But ultimately, until the regime in Tehran goes, the threat to peace and security in the Middle East is going to remain.

And I think better than anybody else, Israeli or American, Bibi Netanyahu understands that.

And so this is a moment in history.

We may or may not see anything between now and the U.S. inauguration, but it's entirely

possible.

This is the moment that Israel really takes a decisive strike against Iran.

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