The climate for striking a deal with Iran is "ideal," and the U.S. should drag out the negotiations as long as possible, former Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Ken Adelman said Tuesday on
Newsmax TV's "America's Forum."
"The fact is that the Iranians have wanted to get a nuclear device since the Shah of Iran was on the throne in the mid-'70s, and the fact (is) that they have been pursuing one," Adelman said. "Bottom line is that the situation today is almost the ideal situation."
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"In other words, don't include an agreement, keep it going in a sense. They are adhering to the interim agreement we had right now. We're not lifting the sanctions. So if you announce in a few days' time that the talks are extended, postponed, the big issues put off until June as many people say now. To me that's ideal. Just keep putting it off," said Adelman, author of
"Reagan at Reykjavik: Forty-Eight Hours That Ended the Cold War."
Adelman disagreed with a host of other political experts that a deal would commence a nuclear arms race. If done properly, the agreement would give the U.S. and other nations a heads up if or when Iran were to build a nuclear bomb, according to Adelman.
"There will be a time element for us to know if Iran is building a nuclear device, and that time has to be well used," he said. "So the whole agreement is to give a year's warning time, wake-up time.
"What do we do in that time? Well that depends a lot on the Europeans. So there has to be two negotiations, one with the Iranians and one with the Europeans," he said. "And with the Europeans, it has to be clear that if the Iranians are shown to build a bomb during that time, we will impose not just today's sanctions, but even tougher sanctions on Iran.
"You need to have the good guys go and really slap on the harder sanctions."