cathedral like to achieve. they'd like to buy time to argue against an israeli military strike. they'd like some relief from the sanctions, and they may want some other concessions as well dealing with syria. >> when i sat down with ahmadinejad a couple of years ago, he was kind of administratived that the president -- miffed that the president hadn't returned. what's this all about? is is it ring around the rosy with these guys? >> they're very good. they've demonstrated over the past 10 or 12 years they're very good at conning western negotiators, u.s. or european. what they're trying to do is under the patina of having ongoing negotiations buy time to continue to make progress on their nuclear weapons program. that's a very valuable asset for proliferators, time to overcome the obstacles in their way, and that could be a factor as well, but you know, you've got an incoming secretary of state in the united states.