James Robbins

The UN is even downgrading expectations. They say they are not negotiations, more like consultations … so you really have to wonder, why are they doing this.

In six months I think we are where we are right now – the battle goes back and forth … these talks aren’t going to amount to anything and I think we’ll keep seeing the same old thing.

Fighters from these areas who have gone to Syria, joined up with ISIS, got experience there and came back. Some of them are local militias and some are ISIS leaders … coming in to organize and exploit the chaos and opportunities that exist.

It starts off as local, but what they are building is an international network, in the same way Al Qaeda did with global reach.

The Iranians don’t want it to be intrusive … even under the nonproliferation treaty where Iran is already monitored, the United Nations has seen Iran doing things that already are very questionable … will the Iranians make this agreement, but 'you still can’t look at everything we have' … if that is the case then we have no reason to trust them, there is very little reason to trust Iran.

This is already the third time they have moved the timeline – I think they are going to move it another three months in part because the Iranians keep increasing their demands. I think in the end, the Iranians might be the ones who scuttle this agreement, if there is a deal, it would be a deal that would involve us moving far closer to their position on the issues than theirs move closer to ours.

If the sanctions are lifted immediately that would be a great mistake … the Iranians sense that they have a pretty strong hand in trying to get these things lifted immediately.