Media

Ben Rhodes Lectures White House On Potential North Korea Deal

Font Size:

Former Obama adviser Ben Rhodes lectured the Trump administration on how to structure a potential deal with North Korea on Monday, despite his own failures with the Iran deal.

WATCH:


During an interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, Rhodes, one of the chief architects of the Iran nuclear agreement, said, “The Iran deal is actually a pretty good template for what they should be trying to accomplish with the nuclear program, because not only did that put strict constraints on Iran’s nuclear program to prevent them from getting a weapon, it had the most intrusive inspections that had ever been negotiated in that type of nuclear agreement. That would be a good baseline for him to start with.”

The sole justification for the United States’ withdrawal from the Iran deal was the lack of enforcement measures, or inspections, that were included. (RELATED: Architects Of Iran Nuclear Deal And Libya Intervention Form Group To Oppose Trump’s ‘Reckless’ Foreign Policy)

Mitchell acknowledged this fact, stating, “the President rejected the Iran deal precisely because it did not cover missiles.”

Rhodes was quick to defend his work in Iran, claiming Trump’s demands for more concessions from North Korea were a “tall task.”

The MSNBC host continued to draw a distinction between Rhodes’ failed Iran deal and a looming North Korea deal.  “This deal has to cover missiles, it has to cover North Korean terrorism, North Korean human rights abuses, all of the things that he rejected, and a real accounting and verification that extends beyond what was achieved in the Iran deal,” Mitchell said.