Deputy National Security Advisor Tony Blinken said the incarceration of three Americans, Iran's support for terror, and other regional destabilizing activities were not "on the agenda" in the Geneva negotiations Monday on CNN.
The Situation Room host Wolf Blitzer asked Blinken why these issues were not included in this weekend's "breakthrough" deal. The national security advisor responded indirectly, replying the only item included in the negotiations was Iran's nuclear program.
Blitzer countered the Iranians have reportedly intensified Pastor Saeed Abedini's confinement, signaling an apparent "slap" at President Obama who raised the issue with President Rouhani in a phone call earlier this fall. Blinken proceeded to regurgitate more empty talking points, telling Blitzer the president would continue to "raise the issue" with Iran:
WOLF BLITZER: So a lot of folks are asking, Tony, in exchange for the $6 billion or $7 billion they're about to get in relief on these sanctions, why weren't they included. Why are they still being held captive inside Iran?
TONY BLINKEN: First of all, I watched your report and I heard her, and it is very powerful, and the president has raised this. In fact, in his conversation with President Rouhani, when Rouhani was in New York for the U.N. general assembly and they spoke on the phone, the only issue other than nuclear file that the president raised was the three Americans who are in Iran, and he asked for Rouhani's assistance in freeing them and allowing them to return to the United States. Rouhani said that he would look into it. With regard to these negotiations, the only subject on the agenda is the nuclear file. There are unfortunately many things that Iran does around the world that we don't like, including its support for terrorism, including its destabilizing activities in the middle east. None of this was on the agenda for the nuclear negotiations. The only thing on the agenda was the nuclear file, to see if we can get to a point where the world is satisfied that Iran has a nuclear program that is only for peaceful purposes, that it can't produce a bomb. That's what we're focused on. But as I said, the only thing the president raised with President Rouhani when he spoke to him other than the nuclear issue was the fate of these three Americans and asking that they be returned to the United States.
BLITZER: Well the case of Saeed Abedini, they apparently intensified his incarceration, they threw him into a more hostile prison environment that looks like a slap at the U.S., directly at the president after he raised it with Rouhani.
BLINKEN: We have been repeatedly clear that we are calling on Iran to release them. The president's raised it. We will continue to raise it. And we hope to see them return home.
Full interview: