Diplomacy must be allowed to play out between the United States and Iran with their talks over Iran's nuclear program, but the fact that the discussions are happening is a positive step, retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt told Newsmax on Sunday.
"The president's preference is going to be a demilitarized solution," Holt, appearing with America First Policy Institute senior fellow Fred Fleitz on Newsmax's "Sunday Report," commented, adding that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff is "speaking with quite a bit of authority here because what we've done to the Houthis has been on full display for Iran."
This means Iran understands that President Donald Trump will achieve his outcome "one way or another" with Iran, said Holt.
"I like that President Trump wasn't coming out so hard and fast [and saying] the 'talks are going perfectly. I expect great results,'" said Holt. "We're all just going to have to let this diplomacy play out and see and see what comes, but I'm very encouraged that we're going down this path."
Still, Holt said, the United States will reach its desired outcome with the talks, in that Iran will have "no ability to have a nuclear weapons program."
"We'll get it by diplomatic or military means," he added. "Militarily, you've got very formidable weapons in our very best bomber, the B-2. [We] have the massive ordnance penetrator, which is quite a weapon that will dig down deep, go to bunkers…if they go to bunkers, it'll be in Isfahan, Iran, way down deep, but not deep enough to hide from our weapons."
Fleitz noted that Trump is keeping his promise to use diplomacy before resorting to military force against Iran.
"He's given the Iranians two months for a deal," Fleitz said.
However, he stressed that there isn't a prospect for a deal at this time.
"The Iranians want to scale down the uranium enrichment program in exchange for sanctions relief," Fleitz said. "They want a partial deal. That's the same thing they pulled on [former President Barack] Obama. They also pulled this on [former President Joe] Biden. The Iranians are enriching uranium to make weapons fuel. They just want to do it at a lower rate. That's what they told Witkoff."
He said he believes Witkoff will respond by telling Iran to either stop enriching uranium and get rid of its stockpile, or face "severe consequences," because "We're not going to be fooled like Obama and Biden were."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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