Former defense Secretary Robert Gates said at a meeting on Thursday that highlighted his newly published memos: It is not assured that the current deal would lead to a full-fledged agreement with Iran.
He did say he favored a mechanism — either through legislation or a “formal commitment” — that if talks fail, Iran would face even more drastic economic penalties than those in place before the interim deal.
“It could be a negotiating asset for the administration in terms of telling the Iranians if you roll us for six months, or slow-roll us for some period beyond that and we don’t end up with an agreement that meets our needs, you’ll not just go back to the status quo ante but you will face a situation that is even more dire,” he said.
But he said it was not at all assured that the current interim deal would lead to a full-fledged agreement with Iran, given the need to persuade Tehran to abandon a possible nuclear weapons capability.
