During a State Department press briefing, Spokesperson Tammy Bruce was asked about talks between the US and Iran about a potential deal to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear arms.
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00:00Thank you. I ā you started out with some of your remarks saying that Iran must stop and dismantle its nuclear program.
00:10Well, let me see. That was Ambassador Whitcoff.
00:12Yeah.
00:13Yeah.
00:13What Ambassador Whitcoff tweeted earlier today.
00:16But just trying to get some clarity on what the administration sees as a potential end goal here with these negotiations with Iran.
00:27Because last week, heading into the talks in Oman, Whitcoff made some remarks to the Wall Street Journal in which he said that the red line would be the weaponization of Iran's nuclear capability,
00:41presumably leaving the door open to Iran maintaining the civilian nuclear program.
00:46So is the administration open to an end state where Iran does still have a civilian nuclear program, but they are no longer able to speedily get a nuclear weapon?
00:59Well, first of all, for a comprehensive response, and we heard from Caroline earlier, the White House has that kind of response.
01:06What I can say, nevertheless, is that the Secretary has been clear, as has the President, as has been the Ambassador, that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon or an enrichment program.
01:22What we hear, and I said this again to our friends earlier in the day, as I do, some of you listening from home, I kind of spend about a half hour with our bullpen during the day,
01:34and we have some talks and find out what's on their mind.
01:37But what I mention, because there's always a reaction to a single tweet or a remark that's in a newspaper.
01:43And as we are clearly moving to a secondary meeting, which I still won't call a negotiation, but that could change, is that these are people who are the best in the world.
01:54Ambassador Whitcoff clearly is one of the best people in the world for negotiating and for dealing with bad actors and getting peace and ceasefires.
02:03But when things are being said in the moment, in public, it is, you must consider that these are not, that's not part of how they negotiate, in the sense of whatever they're talking about together.
02:15And that one should always wait and see that he's, no one's negotiating in public, no one is, I don't know who that message would be for, or the nature of what's said and how and what format.
02:28I would say what matters is an end result, our parties agreeing, papers being signed, it is not what people say, but the actions they take.
02:40We have shown that as a nation, when the actions that we take, and the nature of what we commit to, you can combine the two of what we say and what we do.
02:48But I would say that there's one goal here, and that is that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and certainly they, or the enrichment program.
03:03And that is, I think, a pretty easy thing to start with, and that is the one thing that we know that they're working on.
03:11And I think we'll have some success, considering who we're addressing.
03:14Yes, sir.
03:15One more thing about, you mentioned Ambassador Whitcomb's, last time in an interview with Fox News, he was talking about keeping Iran's enrichment levels below 3.67%, which is like on carbon, JCPOA.
03:31Today we talked about eliminating the Iran's enrichment.
03:35So what's the reason of this difference here?
03:37Well, you can contact the White House, but what I just noted to you is that these are comments that are made, it could be made by anyone in the moment of something that's happening.
03:49I would point to his comment today on Twitter, but I also, you know, Ambassador Whitcomb speaks for himself quite well, and he is a very transparent man.
03:59What's going to matter is what is accomplished, what the end result will be, as opposed to parsing one statement or a sentence line there and another one over here.
04:10I know we all want answers because, well, humanity has an interest in the end result of this.
04:15But I would just caution you in that regard, and to wait, and again, the last, the thing that matters is what is accomplished, what the last point is.
04:26And if anyone can do that, it would be President Trump and his vision, along with Ambassador Whitcomb, who's done a great job in this vanguard.
04:34Yes?