System in persian gulf. It was in 1990. It is not in 2014. It was right after war. And gensher was almost shocked. He came to washington, and washington declined. Therefore, you can see from the beginning, iranians have been seeking for a type of Regional Cooperation. And the foreign minister in 1991, 1992, 1995, he paid visit to all gcc countries. That time i was in foreign ministry, and he raised iranian willingness to establish such a cooperation with the neighbors. But gcc was not in position to agree because of u. S. Position opposition. I really dont believe iran is going to have a dominant role in the region. What is the conventional understanding here. Iran is preferring more Regional Cooperation with the neighbors, even including saudi arabia. I never mean its immediate. Its gradually within ten years, 15 years, this is to my understanding the u. S. Is going to have a gradually decreasing its role investment in the region, which would take five, ten, 15 years. Its not going to happen in one year. Ive got time for three more questions. One from a colleague in the front. And the woman in the blue dress. And adam. First of all, thanks for your speech, and i truly look forward to reading your book. My question brings us back to iran and to inside the country. Here in the u. S. And the west, generally its always very fuzzy when people, reports say that president rouhani is going to have a hard time convincing the hardliners. This big umbrell athe hardliners. Could you tell us your assessment of the hardliner challenge to president rouhani, and do you think how far can he go before the tight rope that he is seemingly walking on will snap . Thank you. To just make it very simple for you, what is the role of hardliners here in washington . How the problems of president obama in congress, this is exactly the same for dr. Rouhani. In tehran and washington, exactly the mirror image. Yeah, hello. Thank you for your presentation. Im in International Peace and security consultant. And i have a question visavis your opposition that the u. S. Is gradually, gradually disassociating or disengaging in the middle east. And i want to bring you forward two years from now where we have an incoming its a hypothetical. Incoming republican president in washington, republicans hold a majority in the two houses, and i want you to put your book and its recommendations two years from now in the future. And i want you to pay particular attention in your response to the issue of u. S. Commitments to israel. Thank you. No, i have no doubt about u. S. Commitments to israel. And it is israel who has declined president obamas attempt for peace process. It was not iran. You know better than me how much you the u. S. President , john kerry, invested on twostate solution. And who declined, who opposed the u. S. President and the u. S. Secretary of state. It was netanyahu. And despite all these facts, i know the u. S. Commitment to the security of israel. I have no doubt. But the issue is whether israelis are making right policies with the current policies they have in the region or they are isolating themselves and blaming the others. This is my issue. Whether we would have a republican president or not, we may have. Even this is to my understa understanding, i really, for me, its difficult to imagine again a republican president would repeat the mistake in iraq and afghanistan. I think america has got a good lesson. And then final question from adam. Former colleague from the new york times. Thank you. Wonderful presentation. Thanks. Introduce yourself. My name is adam stoltman, former times person and independent. Much of the discussion has been framed in geopolitical terms but the question that occurred to me is theres a school of thought, spoused in part by people warren will know very well, which sees the instability in the region especially originating in syria as the failure of political systems to respond. I wonder if youd comment from that perspective. And also if you accept that view what do you mean by that . The drought in syria and how that then led to instability and the failure of the regime to respond in a meaningful way. Tom friedman did a documentary around this. I wonder if you can respond about that and also if you do accept that view, do you see opportunity for cooperation between the west and iran in environmental areas. On syria, i myself, i believe president assad made a mistake at the beginning of the crisis treating the opposition. He could have a better treatment preventing the crisis. One, second, today the reality is the Assad Government is part of integrity of state and nation of syria. Believe it or not, if assad today is collapsed, who is going to govern syria . Who has a better alternative . What is alternative . Who is alternative . Do we have a united opposition . Do we have a united war on syria . The fact is that the army and the security establishments still are powerful, relatively united. Compare syria with iraq. What is the problem today with iraq . The u. S. Made the big mistake to dissolve Iraqi Security system and army at the beginning. For ten years, the u. S. Invested billions of dollars to educate or to train or to organize a new army and Security System in iraq. And you see that the army is weak today to confront with 1,000, 2,000 insurgents. This is the failure of the u. S. But i think iranians, they were wise enough to support assad and his government to prevent the collapse of army and security establishments of syria because no one knows whats going to happen after. Environmental issues, one. I think on weapons of mass destruction in the middle east, for last 30, 40 years, the only realistic major success has been dismantling of syrian chemical weapon. We dont have anything else. And this is only anduttthpxew o because of trilateral cooperation between tehran, washington and3d moscow. Before you can see if there is a real cooperation, what can be the result . No one else can convince assad to give up its chemical weapon because his chemical weapon was against israeli chemical weap s weapons. The refugees, today really there is a big room between the regional countries, iran and the u. S. , europeans, for humanitarian assistance. We have 9 million people, refugees are displaced. Perhaps 50 of syria is destroyed. We need the refugees to go back to their homeland. If there is any possibility of cooperation between iran and the u. S. And syria, first of all, i believe we need to bring the regional powers to cooperation. My idea is r5 plus p5. P5, the five permanent members plus five regional powers. Iran, turkey, iraq, egypt. They need to sit together to manage to find a solution for syria. One. Second, they need to agree on some principles in advance. We cannot rely on syrians. They are helpless. They cannot manage. You dont have any real united opposition to negotiate with. Some principles like integrity of syria, like the rule of majority, like free elections. Some principles, i think, iran regional powers and the world powers, they can agree upon. And then after agreeing on the princip principles, then definitely we would need a transitional period. We would need first refugees to come back. We would need billions hundreds of billions of dollars of investment for humanitarian affair. Resettling the refugees in syria. And then go to a free election supervised by United Nations. To make sure that this is a free election. And then whomever the syrians they elect, everyone should respect. Adam, thank you for that question because it enabled us to bring the argument back to the United Nations at the very end. As i told you before, im going to keep hossein here to chat with those of you who were unable to get your questions asked, to sign books. I encourage you to buy books, and i see the publisher in the back. Did you find some more books . Excellent. There are more books available. Its an excellent book. I want to thank hossein for being such a wonderful guest tonight, and all of you for asking such good questions. Well have more book tv programs coming up. Book tvs normally seen weekends on cspan2. The look at iran and the u. S. Continues with Georgetown University associate professor Matthew Kroenig whose latest book was released in may. A time to attack. The looming Iranian Nuclear threat. Thats followed by the three americans imprisoned in 2009 after hiking an the wrong side of the border and accused of being spies. They tell their story in a sliver of light. Then military historian john mcmanus on the difficulties in the days and weeks following the normandy invasion in world war ii. Tonight at 8 00 eastern on American History tv, Army Veterans tell their stories of the front lines in world war ii, including this soldier who remembers his First Encounter with a german soldier while fighting in north africa. We were fighting on a hill, 609, just beyond the pass. I went up one night to check on my company men and while i was there, there was a lot of big, big boulders on top of the mountain. Well call it a hill with a small mountain how were thinking here. And i heard this kind of scraping noise over my head, and i looked up and a german came down with a bayonet. Went right through the fleshy part here. Cut my light field jacket and fell on the ground in front of me. We had been told that the germans were picking medics off with their snipers. We lost about six of our medics, and they were shooting guys right in the head. And so we were given permission to arm ourselves. I wore a. 45 and we tookor red cross geneva crosses off over our helmets so they couldnt see us. If you killed the medics, morale goes down and the troops didnt know they didnt have anyone to take care of them. So its a situation that you really dont want to get into. So this guy fell on the ground in front of me. He got up and came at me with a bayonet. And i reached to catch the end of the gun. He pulled it back and his finger was almost cut off. And scar is still here. So he pulled back again. I was able to get my pistol out and shoot him. I wasnt scared. We had you react to your training at that kind of situation. But when he was dead, and i was standing there looking at him, i started shaking and sweating and just a weird, weird feeling. I never killed a person before and never did after that. I looked in his pockets to get identification so we could report through to both sides would do that. They could so theyd have records. I found a photograph about twoinch square. And it was a picture of him and two young ladies on there in german writie ining on the back. I found out later that was his sister and his girlfriend. I kept that old picture and i still have it some place. And i used to look at it often to remind me how terrible war is. Two young guys out there trying to kill each other. More front line stories from Army Veterans, including remembrances of dday and experiences in nazioccupied france coming up at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. At 9 10, life on the home front. Wives and children of soldiers share memories of pearl harbor, dday and fdrs death. And at 9 50, the war in sicily and italy. Author Rick Atkinson on the significance of the allied invasion of sicily and the Italian Campaign to the eventual liberation of europe. Thats all tonight on American History tv starting at 8 00 eastern. Heres a great read to add to your Summer Reading list. Cspans latest book sundays at eight. A collection of stories from the nations most influential people over the past 25 years. I always knew theres a risk and i decided to take it because whether its an illusion or not, i dont think it is. It helped my concentration. It stopped me being bored. It stopped other people being boring to some extent. It would keep me awake. Make me want the evening to go on longer and prolong the conversation, to enhance the moment. If i was asked, would i do it again, the answer is probably yes. I would have quit earlier, possibly. Hoping to get away with the whole thing. Easy for me to say, of course. Not very nice for my children to hear. It sounds irresponsible if i say, yeah, id do all that again to you. But the truth is it would be hypocritical to say no, id never touch the stuff if id known because i did know. Everyone knows. The soviet yen and the soviet system in Eastern Europe contained the seeds of its own destruction. In an attempt to control all institutions and control all parts of the economy and political life and social life. One of the problems is when you do that, when you try to control everything, then you create opposition and potential dissidence everywhere. If you tell all artists they have to paint the same way and one artist says i dont want to paint that way, i want to paint another way youve just made him into a political dissident. If you want to subsidize housing in this country and you want to talk about it and the populous agrees that its something we should subsidize, then put it on the balance sheet. And make it clear and make it evident and make everybody aware of how much its costing. But when you deliver it through these third party enterprises, fannie mae and freddie mac, when you deliver the subsidy through a Public Company with private shareholders, and executives who can extract a lot of that subsidy for themselves, that is not a very good way of subsidizing homeownership. Christopher hitchens, Ann Applebaum are a few of the engaging stories in sundays at eight. Now available at your Favorite Book seller. Georgetown University Associate professor Matthew Kroenig has written a number of books about iran. The latest is called a time to attack. The looming Iranian Nuclear threat. He says its worth trying diplomacy with iran but that the u. S. Should also be willing to take military action if iran does not comply with the agreement it signed in november 2013. This is about an hour, 15 minutes. Good evening. My name is stephanie fastler. Im the Program Director for the World Affairs director, washington, d. C. On behalf of the council, i welcome you to this author series event and World Affairs today program. In november 2013, an accord was signed in geneva between the five perminent be members of the u. N. Security council, germany and iran. This agreement was a preliminary one which would set the path for a more comprehensive deal on Irans Nuclear program and ambitions. This agreement came at a time when there was little hope for a resolution to the crisis. Both sides seemed entreached in their respected positions. However, diplomacy and negotiation conventional wisdom said, were the best ways to resolve the crisis. As the alternative, a military strike, would be catastrophic. In the six . Z months since the accord was signed, both sides have taken steps to demonstrate their commitment to the preliminary deal and to reach a new one in the future. Iran has reduced or halted its nr some of its uranium stocks and agreed, too lou International Inspectors to his facilities. The signatories have lifted some of the saunkss which have crippled irans economy. The current negotiations are a continual exercise in trust between the parties involved. Trust that irans activities will become acceptably transparent and trust the other signatories will keep their word. Given their indepth nature, what happens if these talks fail to produce the comprehensive agreement that is desired. Again, many have ruled out military action as being as bad, if not worse, than iran attaining a nuclear weapon. But what are the alternatives to diplomacy . Or the seemingly endless stalemate thats existed since november . Matthew kroenig author of a time to attack the looming Iranian Nuclear threat challenges the assumption that a military strike is out of the question. As well as some other commonly held policy wisdoms related to the iran Nuclear Program. Military action, he argues, should not be discarded as an option. Matthew kroenig is a Nuclear Proliferation specialist and internationally recognized authority on Irans Nuclear program. He has worked as a researcher and teacher at various universities in the United States. Before accepting a council on Foreign RelationsInternational Affairs fellowship in 2010. Through the fellowship, he became an adviser an iran policy and the office of the department of the secretary of defense at the pentagon. And in 2011, a Stanton Nuclear security fellow at cfr. His previous book exporting the bomb was published in 2010. And his articles have appeared in the washington post, the national interest, and Foreign Policy. Most notable, is his february 2012 article in Foreign Affairs which became the basis for his current book. Matthew is an associate professor and the international fields chair in the department of government at Georgetown University and a nonresident senior fellow at the Brent Scowcroft center on International Security at the atlantic council. Please join me in welcoming Matthew Kroenig. Well, thank you very much for that introduction, stephanie. Its a pleasure to be back here and to be back hereznhzbf about my new book a time to attack the looming Iranian Nuclear threat. Before i talk about what the book is about, id like to talk about what the book is not. The book does not argue that we sh