Transcription
I don't believe that the Iranians have been begging for diplomacy. I think there's been a lot of diplomatic activity going on in the background for quite some time. It may have gotten into a more serious point at at this stage, but clearly the Iranian government did not get deterred by Trump's threat of using military force if they shot at pro protesters because the clampdown by the Iranian government has been extremely bloody and intense.
I do think, however, that if diplomacy ends up just focusing on the nuclear issue, uh, it's going to be very difficult to get it to a successful position because the two sides are too far apart and it's ended up becoming a zero-sum variable. They have to expand the pie, look at much deeper issues in order to actually generate flexibility on other variables within a larger negotiation. But if they're just going for the nuclear issue, I don't think the prospects look particularly, uh, good for, uh, the diplomacy to succeed.