in positions when it was called off by the president. the white house and pentagon have declined to comment and the times says no government officials asked the paper to withhold the article. the u.s. strikes would have been on a handful of specific iranian targets, including radar and missile batteries. those officials also tell the times. jonathan mere, what can you tell us about your reporting from the white house? yesterday, we saw the president address reporters against the prime minister of canada did what happened, about the strike that took down the american drone. and he seemed to be telegraphing repeatedly that he thought this was a mistake. at first, the interpretation was iran shouldn t have done this. but it was clear that he was trying to send a signal that he believed this was shot down in error, that it was not authorized by tehran, that this was some sort of general who made a mistake, loose and stupid is the phrase he used. we know the president has been reluctant f
the president on several sensitive issues. the president himself earlier today said he disagreed with tillerson on the iran nuclear deal which, as you know the president hates. tillerson wanted to keep it going. does this suggest to you that the president will now move quick toll chanly to change or that iran nuclear deal? we certainly hope that s not the case. iran should not be violated from the agreement. there are steps taken with the united states and congress involved to make sure we make it clear that iran can never have another nuclear weapon. let s work with our allies. let s keep iran in compliance with this agreement so they don t become a nuclear weapons state, and iran shouldn t be the one to violate this agreement. but if the president has disagreement issues with his secretary of state on the iran
it is a big deal. until they re back home safely we take it seriously, and iran shouldn t be playing around like this. they should get punished. i think it s a very big deal. i m surprised that my friend here didn t mention it. but i thought, i the fact is that the iranians fired the missile last week. and the obama administration, was set to impose sanctions, pulled it back from the congress. so i think we re in a dicey situation, there s pressure on the president coming not only from conservatives, but from others concerned in the middle east, the saudis and the like. that you are too liberal to compliant. lenient. lenient with the iranians, you got to be very clear with these guys. here comes the iranians holding some americans and don t forget, the rationale offered this weekend for why we didn t impose the sanctions was one, they were thinking about releasing some of the americans being held in jail. and two, we don t want to screw
anything out. i m the guy who said it. you should know. you have seen thing and lived through things that people never thought were possible. i m living through it right now. we are arguing every day, you hear everybody in the debate on each side arguing about whether or not this deal with iran is right or wrong. we have left the hostages and those being held almost out of the conversation. you are hearing about them once every day when something is released about iran. iran shouldn t be controlling the conversation about the americans being held in prison while we talk about donald trump. the president said and his advisers said he didn t want the hostages to be part of it because he didn t want harm to come to them. they were clearly part of it. do you think they should have been. they are part of it. clearly are part of it right now. they are not going to be released until money is released. i think this needs to be elevated to a conversation we all as a nation should be
country. you re opposed to the nuclear deal. tell us why. my key issue right now i m waiting for the final details of it, but the framework that has come out, i have real concerns on. the u.n. several years ago said iran shouldn t have the goose enrich uranium. we are apparently agreeing on 5,000 centrifuges. the others would be put with a tape over them saying do not cross but they still have thousands available to them. we re talking about releasing over $100 billion in money back to iran a country that is actively promoting thathamas and hezbollah. the people in oklahoma and the american people do not trust this administration. and i m not meaning the obama administration, i mean the regime that is in iran to be able to actually hold to their side of the bargain. richard haass. i understand the concerns about the agreement, but given that we are where we are, that