Iran's Islamic regime is facing a "big dilemma" over whether to return to negotiating over its nuclear program, including the potential that its population could stage an uprising while the leaders have been weakened, foreign policy analyst Walid Phares said on Newsmax, Sunday.
"On the one hand, Israel is scoring big victories against precisely the nuclear military program," Phares told Newsmax's "Wake Up America Weekend." "It is depleting leaders, commanders, scientists."
The regime, he added, refused to come to the table with "real concessions" to speak with the Trump administration. "The Israelis are shrinking that regime, the power of that regime," said Phares.
And when the Iranian population is not happy with the war and regime, "within weeks, possibly, we could see some sort of uprising against this regime," said Phares. "It's up to us now in Washington, up to the administration and the president to decide what the next step is."
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has said there is time for Iran to negotiate on a nuclear agreement, but that opportunity is "thinning and thinning, and the administration knows it," said Phares.
"That's why the calls are from our side, from Washington to whomever now is in Tehran making those calls, that you have little time," he said.
In addition, there are opposition leaders who say that what they need from the United States is not to support the Islamic regime in Iran.
"They are referring to the Obama administration in June of 2009, when there were 1.5 million people on the streets of Tehran and the Revolutionary Guard didn't know what to do," said Phares. "We had a president at the time siding with the regime against the people, at least being neutral, but siding with the regime against the people. It crushed them."
Phares added that he has suggested through social media that Trump deliver a speech directly to the Iranian people.
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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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