WTH is Going On in the Negotiations With Iran? Elliott Abrams Explains
What the Hell Is Going On
AEI Podcasts
4.4 • 633 Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2025
⏱️ 54 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Following a surprise Oval Office announcement by President Trump during Bibi Netanyahu’s trip to Washington, the United States has once again restarted negotiations with Iran over its nuclear weapons program. Thanks to Israeli attacks on Iranian air defenses and its proxies, coupled with crippling U.S. sanctions, Iran has never been weaker and America has never had more leverage over the Islamic Republic. However, Iran’s nuclear program is also significantly larger and more advanced than it was in 2015 or throughout the first Trump administration. What should Trump demand in a new nuclear deal with Iran? And is the administration’s current approach a recipe for success, or are they being played by the Ayatollah?
Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Chairman of the Tikvah Fund, and the Chairman of the Vandenberg Coalition. He previously served as deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security advisor in the administration of President George W. Bush, where he supervised U.S. policy in the Middle East for the White House, and as Special Representative for Iran and Venezuela in Donald Trump’s first administration. His most recent book is If You Will It: Rebuilding Jewish Peoplehood for the 21st Century (Wicked Son, 2024).
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This podcast is brought to you by the American Enterprise Institute. |
| 0:03.0 | If you like what you hear, please subscribe, rate, review, and share. |
| 0:07.0 | Thanks for listening. Here's our show. |
| 0:08.7 | What the hell is going on? |
| 0:10.4 | What's really going on? |
| 0:12.0 | We said, what the hell happened? |
| 0:13.5 | You don't have to know what the hell is on it. |
| 0:15.6 | They see what's going on. |
| 0:16.7 | I don't know what's going on. |
| 0:18.2 | What is going on? |
| 0:19.6 | We must find out what's going on. What is going on? We must find out what is going on. |
| 0:28.9 | Hi, I'm Danielle Pletka. |
| 0:30.7 | And I'm Mark Tiesin. |
| 0:31.9 | Welcome to our podcast. |
| 0:33.4 | Yet another week in which we ask, what the hell is going on? Mark, what the hell's going on? |
| 0:39.4 | Well, what the hell's going on is negotiations have begun with Iran to dismantle its nuclear program. |
| 0:45.3 | And already, the chief negotiator, Steve Whitkoff, the master of the art of the deal, has preemptively conceded that dismantlement is our position now, but it may not |
| 0:56.4 | be our final position. So, you know, not a good start. I think to set the table for our discussion |
| 1:02.8 | and our guest, I think we need to put the situation in context. We now have a window of opportunity |
| 1:09.8 | to end the Iranian nuclear program that we've never had before and may never have again and that will close in a period of time. |
| 1:17.0 | Iran is weaker than it has ever been since the revolution in 1979. They've lost most of their proxies around the world. |
| 1:26.2 | Hamas is decimated. Hezbollah's leadership has been taken |
... |
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