For every silver lining, we must find a cloud!
That is, if you’re the liberal media, and the Trump administration and Israel have pulled off audacious strikes on Iran, severely damaging its nuclear facilities and eliminating many of its top military leaders and nuclear scientists.
Thus it was that on Monday’s Morning Joe, Katty Kay introduced a segment on the results of the strikes by proclaiming her intent was “not to throw cold water on any potential optimism” as to how there could be a moment for Israel to find peace with Saudi Arabia and in Gaza.
In a discussion with Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, Kay then proceeded to cite a conversation with Karim Sadjadpour, an Iranian-American policy analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
According to Kay, Sadjadpour described several possible scenarios that:
“Could see Iran rushing for a nuclear weapon now, not doing what the Americans are asking and completely disbanding their nuclear program, but actually doing the opposite. And there is a potential that the strikes actually could precipitate a situation in which we’re less safe, not more safe, with Iran.”
Ignatius said his sense was “pretty similar to our friend Karim’s.”
Ignatius told Kay, “You’re right to be cautionary. There’s no sign of a breakthrough with Iran.” And to the contrary, Ignatius said that whereas there was “extensive dialogue” with Iran prior to the B-2 bunker buster strikes, now, we’re “not getting any budge at all from Iran.”
Nice try, Morning Joe! If not quite a bunker buster, you attempted to drop a big bucket of cold water on Israeli and US accomplishments regarding Iran!
Note: The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where the Iran analyst Kay relied on and whom Ignatius described as “our friend” works, describes itself as “nonpartisan.”
Let’s have a look at its officers, past and present.
Current president: Mariano-Florentino “Tino” Cuéllar. Appointed by Gov. Jerry ‘Moonbeam’ Brown as a Justice of the Supreme Court of California, and a former official in the Clinton and Obama administrations.
Cuellar was the successor to William Burns, Biden’s CIA director.
Burns was preceded as president by Jessica Tuchman, a former official in the Carter and Clinton administrations.
The current chairperson of the Endowment’s Board of Trustees is Jane Hartley, a former ambassador appointed by Obama and Biden.
Yup, sure sounds “nonpartisan!”
Here’s the transcript.
MSNBC
Morning Joe
7/7/25
6:36 am EDTKATTY KAY: Not to kind of throw cold water on any potential optimism that there might be that you’re expressing there, I had a long conversation with Karim Sadjadpour who we had on the program a lot. It’s hard to believe that it’s only two weeks in this kind of frenetic news world. We tend to forget news very quickly but it’s only two weeks until those strikes.
Karim was laying out a kind of scenario in which there are multiple ways that the strikes could lead to some sort of different type of government or some sort of successor to the Ayatollah in Iran.
But that amongst those different scenarios, several of them could see Iran rushing for a nuclear weapon now, not doing what the Americans are asking and completely disbanding their nuclear program, but actually doing the opposite.
And there is a potential that the strikes actually could precipitate a situation in which we’re less safe, not more safe, with Iran.
What’s your take on where we are with the Iranian nuclear program at the moment and this idea that there could be a rush in Iran for a nuclear weapon?
DAVID IGNATIUS: So, Katty, my sense is probably pretty similar to our friend Karim’s. It’s clear that the intensity of Israeli and then American bombing has delayed the Iranian nuclear program. It will take months, maybe years, we just don’t know, to put it back together.
There is still this question of where the highly enriched uranium that Iran had already accumulated is, that could quickly be moved to bomb grade in a, as what you describe a dash by Iran towards having a nuclear weapon.
I think the most pessimistic factor that I see is that when I talk to the people involved in the negotiations, they say they’re not getting any budge at all from from Iran.
Before the U.S. sent the B-2s up with the bunker busting bombs, there was an extensive dialogue between Witkoff, the special envoy, and the Iranian foreign minister. That seems to have ended.
And so we’re just in a situation where the only recourse in the future, if Iran does move toward a bomb, is for U.S. and Israeli intelligence to detect it, and then somebody to go in and bomb it again.
So in that sense, I think you’re right to be cautionary. There’s no sign of a breakthrough with Iran.
