Former Iranian Ambassador Mousavian Educates CNN’s Christiane Amanpour

June 26—Continuing his virtually non-stop appearances on major American media, former Iranian Ambassador to Germany and active International Peace Coalition contributor Seyed Hossein Mousavian spoke with CNN superstar reporter Christiane Amanpour June 24 on the current crisis. Mousavian, who was Iran's chief negotiator in the 2015 agreement that barred nuclear weapons development, told Amanpour that, despite an eight-year war after the invasion by Iraq which was supported by the U.S., the Soviet Union and Arab countries, Iran did not give a millimeter of its land. “And Saddam is gone and the Islamic Republic is there.”

Amanpour followed up by asking if Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would have to accede to Trump’s demand to surrender, which Mousavian used as an opportunity to make the point that Iran’s nuclear facilities are a mere pretext for the Israeli intention to effect regime change and the disintegration of Iran. The critical question, Mousavian continued, is what are President Donald Trump’s objectives; if it is regime change, “then you can think about a further escalation, regional war, transregional war, and a total disaster.” If, however Mousavian points out, Trump’s concerns are with the nuclear facility, the conflict can be solved by returning to the terms already negotiated and removing the necessity that Iran develop a bomb as a “bargaining chip.”

Finally, Amanpour asked Mousavian’s opinion as to what would occur going forward. Mousavian responded: “It depends on the end state of the current situation. If the U.S. and Israel would stop attacking Iran, Iran will stop. If the U.S. comes back to the negotiation table, Iran will come. If the U.S. would respect international rules, laws, regulations, which is NPT, Iran would be ready to make a deal and accept the highest level of transparency, open the nuclear program, and then go to a regional consortium. But if the objective is regime change and they are using nuclear, just as an instrument to bring this country to a total collapse, I think Iranians ultimately would go for a nuclear bomb.”

Amanpour breathlessly ended the interview: “Gosh. All right. Well, we’ve been warned. Seyed Hossein Mousavian, thank you very much indeed.”