On Friday’s edition of NBC’s “Meet the Press Now,” Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) stated that in the wake of the American strikes on Iran, he thinks Iran has “no other option but to negotiate now,” because if they attempted to develop nuclear weapons in secret, “we know what’s going to happen again. We just saw it over the past week.”
Panetta said that there was the degradation and destruction of “much of” Iran’s nuclear program, “However, know-how, knowledge, and geology still last through bombs. And so, that’s why we have to ensure that we actually talk to the Iranians, make sure they are at the table, not some intermediaries, that they’re actually coming to the table and talk[ing] to us.”
He continued, “The problem is, as we’ve seen, who does Iran trust right now? They may not trust the Americans after we bombed them. But, at the same time, I really believe they have no other option but to negotiate now, because, if they do try to go it alone, try to withdraw from the nonproliferation treaty, try to shut out any sort of IAEA inspectors, and then develop, in secret, a nuclear bomb, we know what’s going to happen again. We just saw it over the past week.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett