For all of the Obama administration's
sudden declared willingness to walk away from nuclear talks with Iran, the White House is, in reality, "desperate" for a deal, no matter if it leads to the Iranian regime acquiring the bomb, says former U.S. Central Command official and retired Army Col. Derek Harvey.
"They say the right things about, 'It has to be a good deal; they're not going to accept a bad deal,'" Harvey told "MidPoint" guest host John Bachman on
Newsmax TV Monday. "But all the indications are that they are really determined to come out with a deal."
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A deal-for-deal's-sake mentality appears to have taken hold "even if it is going to be hurtful to the interests of our regional security and the security of our friends in that part of the world," said Harvey, director of the Global Initiative on Civil Society and Conflict at the University of South Florida.
And it's fueling a string of escalating concessions to Iran, who are the beneficiaries of a U.S. eagerness to sign an agreement that could undermine the effort to prevent Iran from turning nuclear energy into nuclear weaponry, said Harvey.
"We are giving away considerable leverage over the course of the past several years and, critically, at this point in time, we seem to be desperate for some sort of an agreement," he said. "And that is very troublesome."
Harvey also questioned the
deal's proposed 10-year freeze on Iranian nuclear activities.
"There seems to be a hope — and it's naïve to think — that getting the deal is going to bolster some small segment of a moderate, Western-leaning element [in Iran] that can eventually come to power over the 10-year period," said Harvey.
U.S. negotiators "do not seem to understand the character and nature of this regime," said Harvey. "It continues to seek regional hegemony and it threatens Gulf Arabs, Turkey, and Tel Aviv."
Joined on air by legal scholar and Israel advocate Alan Dershowitz, Harvey said America's courting of Iran also coincides with a loss of influence in Iraq, where Iran increasingly holds sway in the absence of a strategic U.S. vision for the Middle East.
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