This is an incredible exchange.
QUESTION: Ned, can I just – just in the context of what’s been going on over the last couple of months with Iran since the indirect talks resumed or started in Vienna, you have the Houthis increasing their offensive in Marib and the situation in Yemen getting worse. Presumably, you think that these people are Iran-affiliated, Iran-tied, and that they take their orders from Tehran.
You have the DOJ charging Iranian agents with attempting to kidnap journalists from the United States. You have the attack on the Mercer Street vessel, which was a deadly attack. And you have this – whether or not this report today is true about the prisoners, you have Abbas Araghchi’s comments from the other week that you personally labeled outrageous and said they were ridiculous.
So my – this is my question: Is there anything that you can think of that Iran could do that would make you say, no, I’m sorry, we’re not interested in going back to the talks in Vienna because you have shown on virtually every level no goodwill at all? Is there anything that you can think of that Iran might do that would make the talks – that would make you uninterested in continuing?
I’ll skip past a lot of quibbling and hedging by Ned Price, Biden’s State Dept spokesman, in response to a simple question.
QUESTION: Let me try to get an answer to the question that I asked at the beginning, which was just: Is there anything that you can think of that they could do or they would do that would make you uninterested in returning to – or that would take the offer of returning to the Vienna talks off the table?
MR PRICE: I am not going to weigh in on a hypothetical, on a blue-sky hypothetical at that. What I would say is that it will always be in the interest of the United States of America to see to it that Iran is permanently and verifiably prevented from obtaining a nuclear weapon. It is hard for me to imagine – again, without being categorical about this – to – where we would arrive at a point where we would say —
QUESTION: Okay.
MR PRICE: — Iran should have a nuclear weapon.
QUESTION: Well – all right, well, you changed it a little bit. But basically, you’re saying there’s nothing that Iran could do that would make you take the offer of talks —
MR PRICE: No, I – those words did not come out of my mouth. I —
QUESTION: Well, I know.
MR PRICE: The words that came out of my mouth were —
QUESTION: All right, I’ll stop.
MR PRICE: — it will always be in the interest of the United States of America —
QUESTION: And I won’t say another word.
Price, in typical Ben Rhodes fashion, tries to flip variables so that refusing to appease Iran becomes allowing it to have nukes, while appeasing it is positioned as a suppression of its nuclear program. But set aside this dishonest and nonsensical narrative, and Price has admitted, even while denying it, that he can’t name a single thing that the Islamic terrorist state could do that would stop Biden from negotiating with it.
Wellington says
Chamberlain redux—or even worse.
Appeasement of evil never works and, in the long run, costs mankind far more overall.
Pure evil (e.g., the Iranian regime) is the secondary problem. Willful ignorance and appeasement of evil (a lot of cowardice too) add up to the primary error.
Always has been the case. Always will be the case.
mortimer says
Good comments from Wellington. In response to his either/or choice, I say they are WORSE THAN CHAMBERLAIN, because we all now in hindsight why naïve Chamberlain was wrong. I must conclude, then, that the Dems are being bribed by the ayatollahs who are billionaires.
maria says
you are quite right. This government is the worst ever the US had. It is necessary for Republicans to take over House and get President Trump back.
He now knows who are his friends and who are enemies
Phil Copson says
Chamberlain re-armed and declared war – would that Biden be so bold……
Frank Anderson says
Phil, take a look at the US Constitution, Article 1 Section 8 Clause 11, which gives Congress the exclusive power to make and declare war. If the president, as Commander in Chief fails or refuses then he can be impeached and removed from office. 18 months to go, unless a number of idiots suddenly become geniuses-Don’t hold your breath.
PMK says
Congress has not declared war since 1941. It winks and nods when it passes ‘authorization for use of military force’. Every conflict we have involved ourselves in since WWII has been a ‘police action’ of one sort or another. The proliferation of nuclear weapons in that neighborhood (Iran, India, Pakistan), along with Iran’s close ties to China, makes a war declaration unlikely. The decision-making power, unfortunately, is in Biden’s hands alone.
Frank Anderson says
PMK, I agree.
owensgate says
The only “negotiating” that should be going on, is how to enforce an ultimatum, “You will not have one”, an ultimatum we unfortunately don’t have the cojones to issue. But no problem, Israel will take care of it for us.
Frank Anderson says
An unbelievably ignorant fool in action. The 2 basic requirements for any negotiation to start are trustworthy participants and subjects on which to deal and compromise.
You cannot deal with people who openly proclaim their promises are meaningless, and that their rules and goals are “final, perfect, complete and unchangeable.”
Where is the room to compromise between life and death, freedom and slavery, war and peace, bombs or no bombs?
We are seeing today the same kind of mindless arrogant idiocy that was displayed by Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier when dealing with Hitler. Where tens of millions died as a result, this time it will be hundreds or even thousands of millions to record for whatever history is written.
Terry Gain says
Frank Anderson
With great respect to you and Wellington I think that negotiating with Iran is much worse than allowing Hitler to have Sudetenland. Iran wants Israel wiped off the map. Hitler didn’t claim that he wanted Poland and France extinguished before Chamberlain had his futile conversation.
mortimer says
Hitler’s speeches and writings were available to Chamberlain, but he did not choose to read them. Today, all the speeches and writings of the Jew-hating, America-hating ayatollahs are available, but the US leaders are refusing to read them.
We are being led by RECKLESS, SMUG, UNINFORMED POLLYANNAS.
Terry Gain says
Mortimer
I am not defending Hitler but what did those writings and speeches made prior to September 1,;1939 say about making war on Europe?
Frank Anderson says
T.G., I have been studying Germany before and during WWII since I was in military school in the 1960’s. I assure you Hitler made no secret of his ambitions. Rise and Fall of the Third Reich has been joined by a number of detailed works on the period. I am reading the Richard Evans Trilogy now, after my third plus reading of Rise. Chamberlain was deliberately ignorant. Hitler expanded the Weimar Republic’s rearmament efforts rather than originated his own. The “public works” projects like the autobahn were more smokescreens to cover military training than to produce benign civilian improvements. Both the Pope and Chamberlain “knew or had every reason to know” not only what was intended, but what was being done to conquer, murder and enslave.
gravenimage says
Terry–with all respect–Hitler announced rearmement and instituted military conscription as early as 1935, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. He sent troops into the Rhineland the following year. Two years later he marched into Austria. He then demanded the German-speaking areas of Czechoslovakia. Germany soon demanded parts of Poland.
There is no doubt that the full scope of Nazi aggression beginning with the invasion of Poland in September of 1939 shocked even many knowledgeable people–but it is also true that this agression hardly came out of nowhere. Hitler had been telegraphing many of his intentions, not just through his writings but through his actions, as well.
And Chamberlain was hardly ignorant of this. In fact, he never would have essentially given Hitler carte blanch to take Czechoslovakia had he been ignorant of the Nazi’s designs on that nation.
Wellington says
In agreement with you, mortimer. Mein Kampf, which almost no one read (though Churchill did), made it very clear that Germany should extend to the Urals—Lebensraum and all that rot.
When brutal human beings tell you beforehand what they are going to do, best to take them at their word. If Hitler had been gotten rid of before September of 1939, which could have occurred, some 50-60 million lives would have been spared, because no way on its own Imperial Japan would have engaged in the antics it did against America had there been no Hitler by 1941.
gravenimage says
Good exchange, Mortimer, Frank, and Wellington.
James Lincoln says
Wellington says,
“In agreement with you, mortimer. Mein Kampf, which almost no one read…”
Now, in 2021, we can just substitute the Quran for Hitler’s Mein Kampf…
Frank Anderson says
T.G., I don’t think minor goals make a difference. Hitler’s major goal was world conquest, which is shared by standard, normal, orthodox islam from one purported division to all others. Particularly shia islam aspires to create a world conflict killing billions to bring back the missing twelfth imam. The lesson to be taken is that anyone who has the least understanding of history should recognize the plan and act to resist it, unless that plan is attractive and shared.
Take time and think about the elemental requirements of a conspiracy, either civil or criminal: 1) an agreement 2) between 2 or more persons 3) to act unlawfully or to use unlawful means for an otherwise lawful purpose 4) ANY overt act by ANY participant. A few minutes searching for and reading the case from the Southern District of Alabama, United States v. Gary Greenough, 609 F.Supp 1090 (S.D. Ala. 1985) gives an excellent, concise primer on conspiracy and conspirators. It is not necessary to show a specific person contracted with another specific person; only that the goals are shared and ONE person does an overt act in furtherance of that goal. Please read that case.
Raja says
Frank, GI, TG, and Mortimer,
Your exchanges on Chamberlain vs Hitler is very absorbing.. Useful to me. More importantly, of how you made statements that are facts..of how fascism works (and the religious version of Nazism works, aka islam).
Frank Anderson says
R. I was born 5 years to the day after Hitler is supposed to have committed suicide. I depend on the books I have read and television reports I have seen. I am certain that in the more or less 60 years I have been reading on the subject, several hundred books and different authors, many of whom were witnesses or participants, give me the impressions that I share. They know more than I. What I conclude from their information is my best guess. I think it is always a good idea to form our own conclusions, accepting that no one source in this life is perfect.
Terry Gain says
Thank you Frank Anderson and GI.
gravenimage says
Thanks, Terry.
Wellington says
Well, Terry, I did write, “Chamberlain redux or even worse.”
There is also the very important matter that Germany under Hitler had a much greater capacity to wage war effectively than does present Iran. The German military of WWII was in many ways superb, though it fought for a lousy cause, while the Iranian military is second-rate or even third-rate. In eight years it couldn’t even defeat Iraq. All this is a difference that should be considered as well.
Finally, as others like gravenimage, Frank Anderson and mortimer have mentioned, Hitler’s intentions were very well known before WWII ever began. Hitler made no secret of the fact that brutal aggression was “his game” (though he would often lie to disguise his real intentions but only fools bought these lies). Winston Churchill kept warning others about Hitler when Churchill was out of power in the 1930’s but he was not listened to by very many, but when Britain finally had its back up against the wall and had let Hitler get away with one transgression after another, Britain turned to Churchill and as A.J.P. Taylor, a left-wing historian, asserted in the 15th volume of the Oxford History of England, Churchill proved to be “the saviour of his country.” p.4
Infidel says
Price’s simple answer was ‘No’! But he knew how ridiculous it would sound
James Lincoln says
100% correct, Infidel.
Every clear-thinking person should come to this same conclusion…
gravenimage says
Grimly agree, Infidel and James. He cannot manage a straight sentence–just appalling.
Phil Copson says
There is no “negotiation”: The Left are determined (A) that Iran will get nuclear weapons within five – ten years, and (B) that Israel will be blackmailed into submitting to invasion within ten – fifteen.
The “negotiations” are all about (C) – providing Price and Co with a guaranteed lifetime income and a fig-leaf of plausible deniability as they work to bring about a second holocaust.
Fitna says
If 9/11 taught us anything it’s that Muslims are serious about killing us. But these traitors and morons failed to learn that lesson and are back trying to appease evil.
For Leftists, violence is never an option with enemies of the US/Israel but it is against Conservatives.
Either they’re afraid of the Mullahs or are so deluded and think just because the US is the most powerful nation on Earth that its enemies won’t try to attack America.
It seems the one option that will actual stop Iran from getting and using nukes is the option they won’t ever consider, which is the threat and use of force.
Hopefully Israel will act and destroy Iran’s nuke facilities but clearly the US under this craven admin won’t do anything to deter them from getting nukes. Chances are they were all probably paid off as well.
Wellington says
“…Muslims are serious about killing us.”
Sums up quite well the “problem” with Islam and its deluded followers. Islam is indeed enthralled with death, control and the closing of the mind (medieval achievements notwithstanding, many of which were accomplished by non-Muslims in Muslim lands or Muslims (e.g., Avicenna and Averroes) who were barely Muslim and in trouble with the theocratic autocracy that Islam creates wherever it can.
Meanwhile, the evil Omar and her surrogates are trying to establish a Muslim appreciation month here in the very polity, i.e., America, that the Islamic world could never have created (and which attempted to horribly damage on 9/11).
To all reading what I have just written, and I say this as someone who will turn 70 years old this very year, man ordinarily never learns. Occasionally man learns, examples being ancient Athens in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, late 18th-century America, the best of Britain in the 19th century, but overall mankind seems determined to remain in stupid mode—the continued existence of BLM, Antifa and, yes, the EU and UN (just subtler, more official, “versions” of the rot which is BLM and Antifa) only confirms this overall hypothesis all the more.
Enough. Time for a beer—or maybe two.
Raja says
Wellington,
Great comment as usual…. Man never learns.. What a statement !!!
e.g: Noah preached for 120 years yet no one but his family listened/obeyed. Result? God shut the door on the deniers / disbelievers, the just God did not allow last minute gate-crashers as they had already denied God and his messenger.
Interestingly, with islam the narrative on Noah is opposite with some obsession of 72 !!!
The Baháʼí scripture Kitáb-i-Íqán endorses the Islamic belief that Noah had a large number of companions, either 40 or 72, besides his family on the Ark, and that he taught for 950 (symbolic) years before the flood.
Source: https://www.google.com/search?q=number+of+years+noah+preached&oq=number+of+years+noah+preached&aqs=chrome..69i57.10674j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Walter Sieruk says
That title giving that fool statement by an official of US State Department is a direct reflection of that feeble -minded and weak old man Joe Biden , who who is masquerading of the President of the
United States.
Biden with his treasonous policy of appeasement has and will continue to “cave in” and give to those dictators of that aggressive , hostile Islamic tyrannical regime of Iran everything they want and desire.
Pseudo President Biden is real ,actual, villain
PMK says
Walter,
Biden is only following the Obama game plan. Didn’t Obama support the Iranian regime over the people who were demanding freedom in 2009? He strengthened Iran by sending pallets of cash over in the dead of night.
Biden and Obama, though they are the worst, are not the only presidents who backed away rather than confront Islamic terrorism. Their refusal to acknowledge the threat Islam poses to Western civilization can only hasten our demise. 1979 should have been a wake-up call. Instead we were told the Shia didn’t speak for all Muslims. The Saudis were our friends, etc. The first WTC bombing was treated as a ‘crime’ instead of an act of war. Even Bush 43 pandered to ‘our Muslim friends’. in his speech to Congress after 9/11.
Walter Sieruk says
To PMK, Yes, you are 100% right when you keyboard ” Biden is only following the Obama game plain.”
As I has earlier keyboarded on other sites “Joe Biden is just mindlessly continuing the same old awful despicable appeasement policy of Obama favoring that “mullah tyranny ” of Iran by granting those Muslim brutal fiendish Muslim tyrants everything they demand.
Therefore Bogus President Biden isn’t just a feeble -minded idiot, because since he’s sitting in the Oval Office in the White House, Biden is a very dangerous feeble- minded idiot.
Walter Sieruk says
The only “good” thing that can be said about Joe Biden is that when compared to Kamala Harris he is the lesser of the two evils. Nevertheless, the lesser of two evils is still evil.
Walter Sieruk says
The one and only valid reason for Americans not to want Joe Biden to leave the Office of US Presidency is because he would then be replaced by the abrasive ,rude, obnoxious, self-serving Communist Kamala Harris.
For if Harris actually becomes President thing in the USA would not go “From bad to worse, ” but skip the word “worse”. For under Harris thing in this country would go from Bad to the very worst.”
A Harris Presidency would be a complete catastrophe and total calamity for America as well as a disaster and tragedy for the American people.
gravenimage says
Pretty much agree.
Raja says
Walter and Gravenimage,
Kamala Harris coming to the POTUS office might be very scary too. She seems to be blessed with a small brain too, in the light of her view on the “dreaded” K word for Indians.Kashmir.
gravenimage says
Yes–that is what I meant. Harris might be even worse than Biden.
Frank Anderson says
GI, I think that is the major reason all democrat vp nominees are selected. If you don’t like the president you will hate the vp. It’s another form of life insurance.
gravenimage says
Could be, Frank.
Terry Gain says
Barack Obama obviously believes that Iran should have a nuclear weapon. His Iran deal made that a certainty. It could be argued, with considerable justification, that Obama hates Jews so much that he wouldn’t mind it if Israel was wiped off the map. A more charitable view is that Obama has the insane leftist belief that Iran should have a nuclear weapon because Israel has one.
gravenimage says
Agree, Terry–the idea that the Iran nuke deal was ever intended to *prevent* Iran from getting nukes strains credulity, to put it mildly.
gravenimage says
State Department Spokesman: Nothing Iran Does Will Stop Us From Negotiating With It
……………………
This is pretty much whaty Ned Price has admitted. So why should Iran stick at anything at all–including developing nukes?
Suicidal insanity. Now Biden just needs to shovel more money at the Mullahs, and everything is good…sarc/off
Raja says
Today Israel is the target of Islamic devouts / elites and next will be US. The US elites don’t mind that. The narratives of the elites are of utmost importance and reversing everything that Trump did is most enchanting.
Jim says
Biden does not care what happens, he just wants what he wants. The results are whatever he says. It does not matter what our lying eyes tell us, we should believe what he says.
OLD GUY says
Let”s see is it better to keep paying a thug for not destroying your business or should you take the thug down? If you keep giving the thug the money he will keep coming back for more. Irans leadership is a thug threatening to destroy America and its own neighborhood, as long as we all cower and look the other way they will just keep taking what they want.
Bullies only go away when you punch them in the nose.
Walter Sieruk says
Such a senseless and irrational statement by a State department spokesman is the outcome of treasonous international policy of bogus President Biden will is very will to give those in power in that “mullah regime” of Iran everything they demand.
Biden is is an awful man.