The United States and Iran separately announced Monday that they will send delegations to Qatar this week, though Tehran insisted it has not agreed to meet with the U.S. "at any level" after attacks across the Persian Gulf over the weekend challenged negotiations to end the war.
President Donald Trump has tried to preserve a fragile interim deal, but hostilities have mounted in recent days in the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil was shipped before war began. After four days of trading strikes, however, both sides appeared to pause their attacks Monday.
Bob Maginnis, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who has authored a dozen books on national defense and now leads Maginnis Strategies LLC, maintains that the Iranians cannot be trusted to following up on their word.
"They lie, cheat, and steal, and that's what we're seeing played out here," he tells AFN.
Describing the delicate negotiations on "Washington Watch," U.S. Rep. Michael Baumgartner (R-WA) said the Trump administration is forced to negotiate with the IRGC leadership in Iran.
Only about 20 percent of Iran's population supports the jihadist government, the Congressman said, but the murderous regime still maintains power over its people.
"They are jihadists with a messianic view," Baumgartner, a former State Department official who worked in Iraq, warned. "They believe that the hand of God is going to come and sweep their view of Shia Islam across the Middle East, and across the globe."
Iran's radicals also believe the way to make that apocalyptic event happen, he explained, is by setting off a nuclear weapon.
"That is why it's so dangerous if they were to have a nuclear weapon," he warned. "We can never allow that to happen."
Pointing to the Congressman's history at the State Department, where he learned firsthand about the Middle East, show host Tony Perkins asked how the U.S. can negotiate in good faith with Iran.
"Well, the key is behavior, not words," Baumgartner replied. "So we need to see an Iran that behaves as a modern nation should and is at peace with itself and its neighbors."
"This regime's going to do everything it can to survive and to prosper and not to give up its nuclear program," Maginnis predicts. "And to muster together its military albeit given help from behind the scenes by the Chinese, the Russians, and others."
So, as diplomatic efforts continue, Maginnis remains skeptical that Tehran will negotiate in good faith.
He reiterates the Iranian regime's actions consistently demonstrate that preserving its grip on power and its nuclear ambitions take precedence over honoring any commitments, making it a government that cannot be trusted.
