The closer the Western powers and Iran come to a negotiated settlement, the more we hear the West and Iran are destined to be enemies. Can the political establishment in the West and Israel ever say 'yes' to peaceful co-existence with the Islamic Republic? CrossTalking with Charles Cogan, Chuck Freilich, and Jim Lobe.

"The French are the most forward-leaning of Europe's militaries....Former President Nicolas Sarkozy led the charge to get rid of Gaddafi. His successor, François Hollande, intervened rapidly and effectively to save some 6,000 expatriates, mostly French, from being overrun by Islamist fanatics in Bamako, Mali. Earlier this fall, the French were all revved up to join in an air attack on Syria...."

"The American people do not want another war in the Muslim world, that is clear. The Congress should reflect this by voting against President Obama's referral of a proposed attack on Syria. It is ridiculous to assume that such a vote would destroy America's credibility and cripple the remaining years of the Obama presidency."

"...[I]n the event of a worst-case scenario in which negotiations completely fail, Barack Obama has committed himself to an unprovoked military attack on Iran, which would have a disastrous effect on world public opinion and lead to unpredictable human and material damage."

"...[T]his was a useless war, conceived under the mistaken pretext that Saddam was in possession of weapons of mass destruction and resulting in untold sacrifices of dead and wounded on all sides."

"Suspicion on both sides — Iranian and American — is extremely high. Iranian fear of American-sponsored regime change may seem unrealistic in today's world, but the fact is that Iran was the victim of an American regime change back in 1953."

"So assuming that negotiations over the Iranian nuclear program will resume after the American presidential elections, as most observers think they will, we will have to see if the policy of stiffing the Iranians — who abhor foreign pressure, in view of their both glorious and inglorious past — will continue not to work; or whether U.S. concessions, which have not been forthcoming so far, will dent the ideological obduracy of the Iranian position."

"Whether or not the U.S. joined in an Israeli bombing of Iran, it would be blamed for it, and it would be seen throughout the world as America's fourth military intervention in a Muslim country."

"Though military action, with its unpredictable consequences, is to be avoided at all costs, there is very little chance under present circumstances of the above solution being realized. That is why a number of observers of the Iranian scene are advocating the choice of an intermediary, trusted by both sides, to attempt to break the current impasse."

"Invariably, Iranians in and around the academic pressure cooker of Cambridge, Mass. will tell you that the one thing that will not work on the Iranian psyche is threatening language. This may or may not be true. Perhaps we will find out on May 23rd, when the Iranians meet in Baghdad with the West, the Chinese and the Russians on Iran's nuclear program."