question i have, what are the options for the state of utah and other states going through something similar? at what point will they have to say this is the law of the land, there s not much else we can do? if the hope continues, marriage will continue and gay marriage will continue in utah until it winds its way through the court. who knows when that could be. it could be a year from now if not longer. you re going to have gay married people in the state of utah. so that s going to be very hard to unwind that. another revelation from edward snowden, nsa is building a quantum computer that can unencrypt anything. look, a lot of people talking about edward snowden and new york times came out in favor of clem entcy for him. ambassador ginsburg was against
make this deal work and you saw him take, as mark said, a very tough stance on the russians and he was right to do that. he has this new opportunity in iran, and frankly that s a bigger issue for the united states. it more directly speaks to our national interests and those of israel as well. so i think you ll see the administration focusing first on iran to try to get these negotiations started, but there s no question that we need to keep the sanctions in place against iran. we shouldn t take them off unless iran gives us something of great value, of concrete value in these negotiations. on syria, it s a question of implementation and making sure that assad does what he said he would do. if the russians put pressure and heat on assad, that s a big if. a lot of people think assad will not implement this agreement. so making sure this agreement is implemented and driving a very tough bargain, those are the two priorities for the united states in the month or two ahead. ambassadors ni
kerry to pursue this effort with the iranian government, in close cooperation with the european union, the united kingdom, france, germany, russia and china. in the meantime, president obama could come face to face with rouhani, who is speaking later this afternoon. and the big question today, will the two speak to one another? if they do, it would make history. it would be the first meeting between u.s. and iranian leaders in more than 30 years. the white house says that no meeting is scheduled. joining me now for more on all of this, former ambassador mark ginsburg, a former white house middle east adviser and rula gibrio. what did you make of the president s speech? as someone who is totally immersed in the middle east, this speech is almost entirely devoted to middle east issues, from the israeli/palestinian conflict to the efforts to try to forge some accommodation with iran. but the large focus, the most significant focus of the president s speech was on syria.
job. he said israel absolutely have to have a democratic and a jewish state. when he mentioned jewish state, these two things together, combining them, he knows that most israelis know that the future will have to be either two-state solution or one state but the one state cannot be a democratic and a jewish state because the majorities are arab today. that means if it will be one state solution the arabs will not have the right to vote and the right to exercise their citizenship and moviesally and to be citizen in their own country, that means we are heading towards apartheid. i d like to get ambassador burns in on this as well. ambassador, what do you think were the key points related to middle east policy in this speech? it was extraordinary that the speech, which is on america s global foreign policy would be so focused in the middle east, maybe not such a surprise given the events there. the president had a bad month on syria policy and it was very inconsistent and very uneven
they are interested in a new relationship with the united states. so i think president obama is right. test this, see if the iranians are willing to make on paper and in negotiations the type of compromises that are necessary in order we need to see actions, not just words. ambassador ginsburg, for the ayatollah in a lot of ways, this is a win-win. if talks go well, they could see an easing of sanctions. if they don t go well, he can go back to railing against the united states. what are the potential risks and benefits for the united states? well, the risks obviously if iran continues its nuclear program and there s verification by outside agencies like the atomic energy agency that it s continuing to enrich sufficient uranium above the peaceful threshold, which is 20% and at the same time building a nuclear weapon or at least beginning to appear to be building a nuclear weapon, that s going to put the united states on a collision course with iran as well as israel.