Building. The committee was set to meet beginning now 2 15 eastern, but its pushed back a half hour, to 2 45. Taking up legislation that will require congressional review of the nuclear deal with iran. This is White House Press secretary josh ernest said president obama wouldnt necessarily reject the bill proposed by bob corker which would require greater congressional review of a potential deal to curb Irans Nuclear program. The National Journal writes that corker and the new member of maryland reached a compromise monday night to alter parts of the bill in ways that ernest said the administration would consider accepting. The White House Briefing is online at cspan. Org. Were also covering the la times festival of books. Heres a preview. In los angeles is the annual Los Angeles Times festival of books. And book tv will be live, both april 18th and 19th from the university of Southern California campus. Nick is the deputy publisher of the la times. When and how did the la times start supporting this book fair . It is the 20th anniversary of the festival of books. It was an important way the newspaper could engage with the community, could provide a space for all kinds of people, from publishers authors thinkers, but also chefs and art u. S. Ists and actors and actresses to come together and celebrate los angeles as one of the creative capitals of the world. And what can we expect next weekend in los angeles . Were going to have over 500 authors, celebrities musicians, artists, et cetera as well as hundreds of book sellers, publishers and cultural organizations across nine stages. Theres something for everyone. Bring your kids. Bring your grandparents. Theres a huge amount of stuff going on. Some of the notable names can Candace Candace burgan, billy idol Joyce Carol Oates jason segel, Travis Smiley octavia spencer. It is something for everyone. Hippies, foodies, more than a hundred conversations on everything from california to Digital Privacy rights to the future of the american identity. What kind of reaction do you get from the community, to a book fest . You know, its been an immediate success. Its one of the when it was started 20 years ago it right away was a corner stone event in los angeles culture. The people market it out all year long. Its been a signature event. Its been a way the Los Angeles Times invites all kinds of folks around the community to come and celebrate this great city. Its grown to one of the largest festivals of its kind. Theres nothing like it anywhere in the United States. It started very simply as a goal of bringing together people who create books, and people who love to read them, but its grown into this broader celebration. Among other things we have a big book award we give out every year. This year, were adding something new. Were having something called an ideas exchange, where Malcolm Gladwell will be in conversation with the Los Angeles Times film critic. If you listen to npr, youre probably familiar with kenneths voice as nprs film critic. As regular viewers know, book tv will be there. The cspan bus therebywill be there. Weve partnered with the festival of books to create a book bag. Well be handing those out from the cspan bus. If youre familiar with the area, on the usc campus, were half a block from tommy trohjin. Is there a cost . The bulk is free. Some areas are ticketed due to limited space. This is a chance to invite the country in, in partnership with usc, to look at california. California as, you know, the gateway to both latin america and the pacific rim, to look at some of the future some of the challenges the country faces in its future that are acute in los angeles, from drought and Climate Change to immigration and the multicultural diversity of this nation. Across the board, all kinds of exciting opportunities. Go to the Los Angeles Times, la times. Com, and follow the book fest lafob, los angeles festival of books. Thanks for being on book tv. Looking forward to seeing folks next weekend. It will be live on cspan2 all weekend next weekend, from the Los Angeles Times festival of books. Saturday and sunday april 18th and 19th. Go to book tv. Org to get the full schedule. Lot of call in opportunities. Lot of panels. Lot of nonfiction authors youll be hearing from all weekend long on book tv. Here on cspan3, well be live in 25 minutes, 2 45 eastern, Senate ForeignRelations Committee taking a meeting to consider the bill dealing with the Iran Nuclear Negotiations and the announced framework. Thats 2 45 eastern. Until then part of todays washington journal. On the day that iraqi Prime Minister is set to meet with president obama at the white house, we welcome former u. S. Ambassador to iraq, Christopher Hill, back to our program. Ambassador hill, whats on the table today at this meeting between the Prime Minister and the president . Oh i think its going to be a lot on the isis crisis. Certainly, the president will be briefed on what hes been up to, in terms of trying to pull together the country after a kind of Difficult Run with his predecessor, maliki. Abadi speaks english, and it should be a much more sort of pleasant meeting for the president. Nonetheless, i mean, the issues are really tough. You mention some of the tension with the previous Prime Minister. What is the relationship like between president obama and Prime Minister al abadi, or is that something thats going to be in Development Today . I think its going to be in development. Obviously, theyve talked on the phone before. Abadi lived in the west, speaks english. I think its going to be a little easier to talk to him. Unlike maliki, who sometimes come to washington and then raise issues that no one knew he was going to raise the president wasnt sure what to do with them, the president s staff would wonder, where did that one come from. So i think abadi is going to be a lot more user friendly. That said these are tough issues. What to do about isis. What to do about the shia militia groups that have been a key part of pushing isis back. What to do about the iranian presence on the ground in iraq, which is clearly grown as the isis crisis has grown. Abadi is looking at a situation where his oil revenues are down. The price of oil is way down. Theyve had production problems. There are a lot of problems in iraq, and they have the sense that somehow, weve abandoned them. Its going to be theyre going to have to get down to the point with these discussions. One of the reports from route reuters yesterday, iraqs leader to seek payment on this deferred visit. A story about whats on the table today in the meeting between the Prime Minister and the president. If that is the ask today, is that going to be a tough sell, especially in light of how iraqi troops performed in the face of the isis advancements through mosul and other parts, large parts of iraq last year . On a certain level, everyone understands the need for more arms for the iraqi army. But on another level, people look at isis parading around with American Equipment captured from the iraqi army. Theres a little skepticism about throwing good money after bad. Clearly, abadi needs to make the case that hes turned things around. The iraqi army is performing a lot better than it did a few months ago. Nonetheless, any big arm sales need to be approved by congress. Congress is in a skeptical mood about iraq. If our viewers want to join the conversation, were talking to former u. S. Ambassador to iraq, Christopher Hill. He was ambassador there from 2009 to 2010. Before that, served as the former assistant secretary of state for east asian and Pacific Affairs, 2005 to 2009. With us for the next 45 minutes or so. Phone lines, republicans call at 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. Independents, 2027488002. Ambassador hill, i want to get your assessment of how the Iraqi Government is playing off the competing interests of the United States and iran as they look to try to defeat this threat of isis in this in their country. I mean, the essential problem is we live in a sectarian age. When the u. S. Went into iraq in oh 5 03, it flipped what had been a sunniled country, that is Saddam Hussein. He was sunni. Most of his government was sunni. We turn it into a shialed country, with a few Prime Ministers, includinge inging maliki. To an extent iraq is a black sheep in the arab middle east because sunnis in the arab middle east, i mean, they stretch all the way from iraqs borders, right over to morocco. They have kind of strategic depth and dont accept the shialed iraq. If you add to the equation the perception that the iranians are having their way on the ground, not only in iraq but also in syria, and theyre helped al assad, helping hezbollah, various other shia groups. Meanwhile, the iranians seem to be cheer leading at the very least, the success of the houthis in yemen, who are also shia. The sunni arabs look at what they believe to be this kind of shia advance, and theyre very worried about it. What were really asking the sunni arabs to do is not worry about shia, but rather worry about the extremist sunnis in isis. This is really the proverbial problem from hell. Speaking of iran, want to get your assessment of that announced framework deal of the Iranian Nuclear program. Youre a man who knows the art of diplomacy well. Was this a good deal . Well you know, you have to say that compared to what . I know there are a lot of people who think they could have reached a better deal with the iranians. I think it certainly creates a path forward. We have to see whether they can kind of cross the ts and dot the is with this agreement which theyve got three months to put together. If it works theres no question, its a good deal. If it has problems with the implementation, has problems with the verification by international observers, then its going to be a real difficulty for the Obama Administration to sell. For now, i think its a way forward. I wish people would give it a little more chance than they have. For those watching washington, d. C. Today for news on this front the Senate ForeignRelations Committee is set to take up the Corker Menendez iran bill today, giving congress a 60 day review and a say on any deal. Its a iran agreement review act of 2015. Has bipartisan support. You can check it out, cspan3 at 2 15 for that committee markup. Ambassador hill, your thoughts on congresss role in whatever final agreement is reached here. Well theits complicated. First, there were the landmark agreements with the soviet union. They were legal treaties that did indeed require congresss or the senates consent. But most agreements around the world, of the kind were looking at here, are something done by the administration through an executive process. That is, theyre political deals, not legal deals. The problem here is for the past year or so, the president has signalled his intention to try and rule through executive decrees, given the difficulty of dealing with the congress. So this issue of the iraq deal gets caught up in that sort of overall issue of executive privileges. And compared to the fact that in the past with the soviet union we had legal arms control agreements. So its going to require a mammoth amount of consultation. Theyll have to unleash joe biden on the senate and get him to work with his former colleagues. Itll be difficult because there is a mountain of mistrust on pennsylvania avenue these days. Lets get to calls. Jack has been waiting in providence, rhode island, line for republicans. Jack, good morning. Hi. Good morning. Even though i am a republican the United States did help create some of these problems in iraq, like back in the 80s. We were a supporter of Saddam Hussein because we used him as a buffer against iran. In the 40s, we were aligned with the soviet union because we couldnt defeat them, too good too strong. Then back under the george bush administration, Saddam Hussein, he had to go. He was a strong man, but when he was there, none of these problems existed because he crushed them. Granted, yeah he was brutal but now that hes gone there is a power vacuum there. Its created a multitude of problems, which we helped create. Ambassador hill do you want to pick up on that . Your assessment of how much responsibility the u. S. Has in the problems in iraq today. Well, if you live there as ive lived there and you see what Saddam Hussein did to the country and to his people, you dont rue the day we got rid of hussein. He was a hideous character. At times, you have the impression that the u. S. Didnt understand what we were dealing with there. We thought that somehow, if we got rid of Saddam Hussein there was this sort of level of middle class and issuesbased politics yearning to flourish in a democratic environment. In fact when you get rid of governance, even bad governance, as was the case with Saddam Hussein, you have people taking refuge in old loyalties. Those old loyalties tended to be sectarians. People became a little more shoeia and sunni. You can lay blame on the United States, to be sure. But i get a little tired of this blame game stuff. Its mainly in washington. I see theres a little bit of it in providence, rhode island. By the way, the capital of my home state. I think its necessary to figure out, what are we going to do now . How will we go forward with this . Let the historians sort out some of these issues of, you know, who made mistakes in the past. A question from twitter referring to this front page story in the new york times, and also several other papers today. Russia to sell missiles to iran, which might cloud the nuclear talks, is the headline from the new york times. Is iraq worried about the announcement that russia is going to sell arms to iran again after the u. S. Nuke deal . What is that impact on the region . Well, obviously this is not well received at all by the entire region. Sunni arabs have no interest in seeing iran get rearmed. Their argument against this nuclear deal is that its going to reverse the sanctions and youre going to see more such deals. For those that have been saying dont do this nuclear deal theyve got exhibit a already. Vladimir putin when faced with the right or wrong thing to do almost 100 of the time he chooses the latter. I think this is an example of it. Did you have a chance to meet him during your years of service with the u. S. State department . No. I just was able to shake his hand once, and that was enough. What was your impression of the man when you shook his hand . Hes a hes someone who looked at his countrys performance in the 1990s and decided it was time to make a big change and get russia kind of back on its feet. Hes done so in a very damaging way, extremely damaging to russias relations not only within its bordering countries, like ukraine but with the entire world. I think to some extent putin has taken russia out of the business of being a great power, working in concert with other countries to try to resolve the worlds problems, and its become a problem itself. I think were going through a bad patch with putin. I think we need to be prepared for the long haul in that regard. Weve got former u. S. Ambassador Christopher Hill with us for the next half hour. He was ambassador of iraq and the former secretary of state for east asian and Pacific Affairs affairs, 2005 to 2009. If you have questions, republicans, 2024388001. Democrats, 2027488000. Independents, 2027488002. Frank is on the line. Go ahe. A year ago, i was watching cnn and they ran a special on a billion dollar aid for weapons. It was given over to a bicycle salesman from the netherlands. He ran off with 7 to 8 billion of the money. Do you know what happened to that . The last i saw on that article he was in south of france which was not being extradited. Ambassador hill, a case youve heard about . No. I cant speak to the specifics of that. I can tell you that the arms sales business around the world, certainly the United States tries to regulate carefully our sale of arms. We have some pretty impressive systems. We make sure that we have a pretty, you know robust system to make sure these things dont get into the wrong hands. Ill tell you, there are a lot of private arms merchants out there. What to say, its not a profession i would encourage my children to be in. Tom is in clinton maryland. Line for democrats. Tom, good morning. Good morning. Can you hear me okay . Yup. Yeah i beg to differ with ambassador hill about this being a bad deal that the iranians the fact that the russians are selling the missiles is so that the deal is compromised already. Let me say that, as long as this deal stays on the table i mean, i think its worse for us. We need to come to a deal something we can verify and hold the iranians to it. If they go against the deal, even if its not the best deal we have some idea of what we can do. The way things stand now were going to have to bomb iran. With these sophist