State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki got into a testy exchange with AP reporter Matt Lee Thursday over the current talks with the Iranians and how the administrations strategy is a "gamble" that could enable the Iranians more time towards developing a nuclear weapon:
Q: Right, but it's a gamble. And it's -- and the person you're gambling against, or the country that you're gambling against here has repeatedly cheated in the past. And I think that's where the concern from the Hill, at least some of it, is coming from, that there is no guarantee -- and I think you have to accept this -- that the Iranians will go along with whatever agreement is reached for this first six months. And if they don't go along, instead of buying additional months in terms of breakout capacity, you will have lost it.
Is that not the case?
MS. PSAKI: Well, Matt, the purpose of the negotiation is to determine benefits to both sides to abiding by the negotiation. That's obviously what's being discussed. I'm not going to entertain the possibility of whether they do or don't agree to an agreement that's not even agreed to. But obviously, as I've mentioned now a couple times, this is not about trust; this is about determining the way to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. We feel diplomacy should always be the first path, and that's what we're pursuing now.
Q: OK. I'll stop after this, but I just want to try and get a straight answer to the question. If, in fact, you can buy additional months in terms of their breakout capacity if the Iranians go along with this and are honest and forthright about it, is the opposite not the case? Do you not lose additional months of their breakout capacity in the event that they don't?
MS. PSAKI: Well, I don't think you lose, because what's the alternative? What is the alternative plan being proposed here?
Q: Well, but you lose because they're closer to having a nuclear weapon.
MS. PSAKI: Well, we lose if we don't have a diplomatic path forward, we don't have an agreement, there isn't an alternative being presented that's preventing them from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
Q: So in other words, it is a gamble.You're gambling that the Iranians will abide by this agreement if and when it is ---- (inaudible) -- except that there are -- the stakes here are higher than just the dollars.
MS. PSAKI: The stakes are incredibly high.