Interview with the Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Extra innings, overtime right now in the nuclear discussions with Iran. Secretary of State John Kerry is in the middle of the discussions right now. Can a deal be struck by July 7th? The first deadline was June 30th. So, where are we right now? What are the latest on the negotiations? Here's a man with us who knows, the deputy secretary of state, Tony Blinken, here with us. Thanks so much for being here.</s>TONY BLINKEN, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: Thanks for having me.</s>BERMAN: June 30th was the deadline. Where I come, a deadline is a deadline. The new deadline though is July 7th. Is that rock solid July 7th or bust right now?</s>BLINKEN: You know, we have been at this for almost two years and it was worth taking a few extra days to lock in the commitments Iran has already made when we announced the basic elements of the deal in Lausanne a couple of months ago. And that's what we're working toward, because the single best way to prevent Iran from getting the material for a nuclear weapon is to get this deal done.</s>BERMAN: That means it could go past July 7th?</s>BLINKEN: Well, it could. But I think we're very, very focused on getting it done over the next few days, and we'll. We'll know if Iran is prepared to make good of its own commitments. Whether it has the political space to do what it said it will do, or if it doesn't. As you heard the president say the other day, if it is not prepared to make good on its commitments, we'll walk away.</s>ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: CNN just received a statement from the vice president of Iran. It sounds like they have a different take on this, not surprisingly, than what you're saying. They say that hopefully the deal will be finalized and signed. All of this depends on the demands of the 5-plus-1 countries. If they come away from their, quote, "excessive demands", then for sure, an agreement will be signed. Is the U.S. looking for excessive demands?</s>BLINKEN: Absolutely not. What we are looking is what was agreed already in Lausanne. And the challenge has been, taking these basic elements that were clear and translating them to a details agreement. When you do that, that's when the differences start to emerge.</s>CAMEROTA: Right, such as inspections. I mean, so the U.S. would like an international group, IAEA, to go in to see if Iran is keeping their promises. However, the ayatollah, as you know, has said they would not allow this near the military sites. So, is that the condition that the U.S. would ever give on?</s>BLINKEN: The short answer is no. Inspections are absolutely critical to this deal. And if we don't get them, we won't make the deal. There's a lot of posturing going on, people are making statements. They're playing to different constituencies, different audiences. I think that's what's happening. But at the end of the day, the bottom line is, if we don't have the verification, the transparency, the inspections that we need to make sure Iran is not developing material for a weapon, we don't have a deal.</s>CAMEROTA: So, what inspections would you be willing to give up?</s>BLINKEN: Well, this is exactly -- we're not going to give on anything. What we need to do lock in in detail exactly what the inspection regime would involve. That's what they're working on right now.</s>BERMAN: Does it have to be military sites?</s>BLINKEN: Any place that the IAEA has concerns about the possibility that Iran is developing material for a weapon, they need to have access to that site, military or non-military.</s>BERMAN: It has to be nuclear scientists, free and unfettered?</s>BLINKEN: So, there are people, there are places, there are documents that the IAEA will need to have access to. All of that is what's been negotiated right now and it's the details that country. And if the details are not there, we won't have a deal. But my sense is that the Iranians have invested a lot in trying to get to this point. And we'll see if they are prepared to do what's necessary to lock everything in.</s>CAMEROTA: You think ultimately they will acquiesce to allow free and unfettered inspections?</s>BLINKEN: Well, again, if they don't, we won't have an agreement. And they need an agreement. They need it more than we do. And the president is very clear about this, if the international community is not satisfied that we have what we need to be able to tell the world that Iran is not going to develop material for a nuclear weapon, there's no deal.</s>BERMAN: Let me ask you about a place where we have a deal already, with Cuba. Just opened up diplomatic relations with Cuba and the embassy going to be in Havana. The embassy in Washington, a Cuban embassy. But one of the questions is, will there be an actual ambassador to Cuba from the United States? Florida Senator Marco Rubio says, not on my watch. Let me read you a quote. He says, "It remains unclear what, if anything, has been achieved since the president's December 17 announcement in terms of securing the return of U.S. fugitives being harbored in Cuba. I intend to oppose the confirmation of an ambassador to Cuba until I see these issues addressed.</s>BLINKEN: Well, look, I hope we do get an ambassador when the time comes. Yesterday, I actually took a -- received a letter from President Castro to President Obama to reestablish the diplomatic relations and we sent a letter from Obama -- President Obama to President Castro yesterday as well. You know, we shuttered our embassy 54 years ago, the year before I was born. So, my memory and I suspect yours is a relationship that had no diplomatic relations. What we are hearing overwhelmingly from the Cuban people is that this is what they want. They want this relationship to be reestablished, we ought to listen to them because that is a quicker path, surer path to more freedom, more openness, more democracy in their country. Now, they're going to have an ambassador here. It would be unfortunate to penalize ourselves and not have an ambassador there. More and more Americans are going to Cuba. We need an ambassador, an embassy to make sure that their interests are being protected. And most important, we have an ability now to engage more with the Cuban people from our embassy. Have them come to our embassy, have our diplomats travel around the country to hear their voices. All that will be much more effective if we have an ambassador in place. But first things first, the embassies will open in -- toward the 20th of July. And then we'll move from there.</s>CAMEROTA: We want to ask you about ISIS. There had been attacks just this week, Tunisia, Egypt, Kuwait. It feels as though ISIS is expanding its reach. Is it?</s>BLINKEN: We've seen two things. The al Qaeda, which was the group that we were dealing with after 9/11, its core has been decimated in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But what's happened over the last decade or so is that the problem of groups has metastasized and groups are springing up in different parts of the world, including some of the countries that you just mentioned. And ISIS is the new force in town. So, we put together a coalition of more than 60 countries to deal with this problem, to cut off the financing, to cut off the foreign fighters, to deal with the messaging.</s>CAMEROTA: But it doesn't seem to be working when we're seeing these brutal attacks this week.</s>BLINKEN: Well, it is working but it takes time. And the president is very clear about this, it's going to take time. Let me give you an example, because we get a lot of bad news and sometimes we lose focus on what's happening. Iraq, over the last year since we had this coalition in place, the territory controlled by ISIS is down 35 percent. Thousands of their people have been killed. Much of their material has been destroyed. So, they're actually moving backward in Iraq.</s>BERMAN: Backward into Ramadi, which they didn't control before. They still are in Mosul.</s>BLINKEN: Well, Ramadi --you're right, Ramadi is a particular place because it's in Anbar province, a Sunni province. You had predominantly Shia Iraqi military going in, a kind of alien force. What the prime minister is doing now in Iraq is he's enlisting and trying to mobilize more Sunnis to get them into the fight, and they will fight for their towns, they will fight for these cities, they'll fight for their lives. That's the trajectory in Iraq, and it's moving in a better direction. But it's a challenge. It's going to take time. But we have more than 60 countries now in this fight working together to try to stop</s>ISIS. BERMAN: Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken, thanks so much for being with us. Really appreciate it.</s>CAMEROTA: Thanks a lot.</s>BLINKEN: Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.</s>CAMEROTA: Let's head over to Michaela.</s>MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right There's much debate about the Confederate flag. Again, renewed conversation about it. Should it stay? Should it go? You might be surprised by the results of that and other numbers in our latest CNN/ORC poll. We'll have that for you, ahead.