Tehran Times- Robert Jervis,  the Adlai E. Stevenson professor of international politics at Columbia University, believes Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s hawkish remarks about Iran is not worthy of attention.


“I doubt if Trump has thought about Iran for more than 10 minutes,” Jervis tells the Tehran Times.

Trump had said if he was elected president he would immediately renege on the nuclear deal with Iran.

However later his aides and he himself tried to soften his stance. For example, Walid Phares, senior Trump adviser, said in an interview with the conservative website The Daily Caller in July that that despite past promises to “rip up” the deal Trump is interested in is a renegotiation, not completely abandoning the agreement.

Following is the full text of the interview:

Q: What is your prediction of the result of the U.S. presidential election in view of his lewd remarks about women?

A: I think Clinton will win, and the tape and subsequent accusations hurt Trump among those who already had grave doubts about him.

Q: Why did Trump remain a competitor despite scandals surrounding him? And basically what groups are going to vote for him?
A: His strength surprised most observers--myself included.  Some of his current support is from traditional Republicans who will vote for anyone of that party.  Additional support is from those, largely white males without a college education, who believe the system has treated them unfairly and that the country they know and love is being stolen from them.  And a third, overlapping, group believes that Washington is broken and isolated from the country and that anything that drastically shakes things up will lead to an improvement.

Q: Why does Trump blame the media for a coordinated action against himself?

A: I think it has accurately reflected his character, often using his own words and pointing to his behavior.

Q: Among the two candidates which one is more aggressive toward Iran?

A: I doubt if Trump has thought about Iran for more than 10 minutes.  He merely believes that he is the only one that can make a "good deal."  I suspect that Hillary would continue the same basic policy as Obama, but might not try as hard to relax some of the sanctions.