Amb. Grenell says Trump is putting diplomacy first, working to bring Iranian regime back to negotiating table
Grenell tells Bret Baier that he is not surprised that President Trump's sanctions on Iran are working.
The U.S. Ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, discussed America's strategy to push Iranian sanctions abroad on "Special Report with Bret Baier," and said President Trump is open to cutting a new deal with the current Iran regime.
"First of all, let's credit the president for bringing people to the table," he said Tuesday. "The fact is... that we see it play out with Iran where the president has made very clear that he would sit down with this current regime and try to work through all of these issues.
"Not only the nuclear deal but the ballistic missile technology issues, as well as the malign activities. So I'm not surprised that the sanctions are working that President Trump put on and that the pressure that the Iranians are feeling are bringing them to the table."
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Grenell said Trump's goal was to establish an open dialogue between nations with the intention of achieving detente and claimed the "Trump doctrine" will cover both Iran and North Korea.
"That was the goal. That was the goal with North Korea, and we've seen the North Koreans come to the table. We're hoping the Iranians will come to the table," he said.
"Look, these are very difficult issues. There's a lot to work through. We have a lot of specific issues that we're going to have to sit down and talk. But the goal here is to bring the current regime back to the table so that we don't have any more wars or military action that's unnecessary. President Trump is putting diplomacy first and I think that's what the Trump doctrine is all about."
Grenell also talked about his discussions with high ranking Europeans in the public and private sectors regarding Iran and said European nations and businesses have the same goals as the United States, to deny Iran nuclear capabilities.
"I talked to European CEOs and businesses all the time. They are complying with the U.S. Sanctions, that's not a problem, that's not an issue. We've made it perfectly clear that companies get to choose either Iran or the United States. They just don't get to choose both. And I think they are choosing, when we make it clear that we are watching and that we're going to follow up, they're choosing to turn away from Iran," he said.
"That's the squeezing of the sanctions that are bringing the Iranians back to the table... we have multiple statements from the European foreign ministers making it very clear that they share the same goal as the United States, denying Iran a nuclear weapon and getting rid of the Iranian support for terrorism and ballistic missile pursuits.
"We share the same goal. We have a little bit different tactics, so my job is to communicate to the Germans and to make it very clear that we share the same goal, and we want to have their support in cracking down on Iranian regime money. And that's what the sanctions are trying to do."
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