Closed captioning of: World leaders meet on Iran nukes
>>>
matt, thank you. the u.s. delegation attending tomorrow's high-stakes showdown with
iran
over that country's nuclear ambitions arrived in
geneva
overnight. nbc's chief
foreign affairs
correspondent
andrea mitchell
traveled with them. andrea, good morning to you.
>>
reporter: good morning,
meredith
. when the u.n. delegation meets with the iranians tomorrow, they want to see concrete steps. they want to see access for u.n. inspectors to the people, to the documents, to the site itself.
iran
has said that it is willing to let u.n. inspectors in, but they haven't said when and they haven't said how much they'll let those u.n. inspectors see. so, a senior official said to me here today in
geneva
, this is the real test of whether diplomatic engagement will work. the betting is that
iran
will do just enough to appear conciliatory and try to divide the
european coalition
, particularly dividing the u.s. from
russia
, but not enough to really satisfy the u.s. that it's no longer cheating.
iran
may, in fact, even offer to commit access or release of those three american hikers, but u.s. officials here in
geneva
say they want to talk about one thing -- the
nuclear program
.
meredith
?
>>
and if
iran
were to stonewall, andrea, what leverage does the
united states
really have?
>>
reporter: well, it's a very tough situation because if
iran
stonewalls, probably, then,
russia
would stay on board and china would follow
russia
's lead, but if they take that middle course, that really could divide the coalition. then the u.s. and europe could tighten existing unilateral sanctions, not working through the u.n., assuming that
russia
would veto anything, and they could try to impose some other additional sanctions, but sanctions without the u.n. behind it are not as effective, and
robert gates
, the military has said there really is no military option.
meredith
?
>>
all right,
andrea mitchell
, thank you very much.
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