Feb. 15, 2026 - Judging Freedom - Judge Andrew Napolitano
16:04
Alastair Crooke : Why Witkoff’s Russian Negotiations Are Failing
Alastair Crooke critiques U.S.-led Iran negotiations, including Witkoff’s Geneva talks, as misguided, with Netanyahu demanding zero enrichment, missile limits, proxy cuts, and Hamas disarmament—terms Iran won’t accept. Missiles and proxies are non-negotiable for Tehran, and sanctions relief is their priority. Crooke warns Trump may face war if talks collapse, citing Israeli opposition and potential unilateral strikes. He also condemns Trump’s Ukraine policy, accusing it of sacrificing lives for profit while undermining democracy, framing the conflict as a clash between freedom and authoritarianism. [Automatically generated summary]
Tragically, our government engages in preemptive war, otherwise known as aggression, with no complaints from the American people.
Sadly, we have become accustomed to living with the illegitimate use of force by government.
To develop a truly free society, the issue of initiating force must be understood and rejected.
What if sometimes to love your country, you had to alter or abolish the government?
What if Jefferson was right?
What if that government is best which governs least?
What if it is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong?
What if it is better to perish fighting for freedom than to live as a slave?
What if freedom's greatest hour of danger is now?
Hi, everyone.
Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom.
Today is Monday, February 16th, 2026.
Aleister Crook will be with us in just a moment on Are the Witkoff negotiations with Russia failing?
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Alistair, good day to you, my dear friend.
Thank you for joining us.
As always, such a refreshing way for me to start my week off every Monday, every week, being able to pick your brain.
Before we get to Witcoff and the Kremlin and their negotiations, are you of the view that President Trump has already decided to attack Iran?
Not 100%.
And I think if in the Hebrew press, the Israeli Hebrew press, this morning, they are describing the talks.
I mean, last night, Sunday night, Netanyahu had a briefing about his talks that he had in Washington last week.
And he said very clearly, he said he hasn't reached a decision yet.
He said, but he insists that he thinks that the Iranians are ready to do a negotiation with him.
This is Netanyahu's version of the talks.
And he says he believes the Iranians do want a solution.
And they regret what happened last time.
But very clearly, he thinks that this is possible and he gives a highlight timeline.
It's not clear a month or so, but Netanyahu says it wasn't fixed.
It wasn't absolutely certain.
I think this does reflect, Judge, a little hesitancy on the part of Trump about what he's undertaking, a major war in the Middle East.
So I think there is that.
But Netanyahu, in this discussion last night, in this briefing to the Israeli press last night, was absolutely clear.
He said, I will not support any agreement.
I will oppose any agreement that doesn't cover the four areas.
The four areas are a nuclear deal at zero enrichment, specifically at zero enrichment, an end to the missile program beyond 30 kilometers, and cutting and severing of all of the links with Iranian proxies.
And he added a fourth.
And he says the fourth one is Hamas must be utterly disarmed, right down to AK-47s and their tunnels destroyed.
These are the conditions that he has given Trump to perform for.
And he said last night in the briefing, he was very plain and said, I don't believe it.
I don't believe the Iranians are going to agree to any of this.
They won't give up the missiles.
They won't give up either their proxies.
They're too valuable to them.
And so he didn't finish the sentence, and I'm finishing it for him.
But the implication was clear enough.
Therefore, Trump will have no choice but to go to war either sooner or later, but as soon as these negotiations fail.
And that is a consensus that is not just held by Netanyahu, but more widely it's held certainly by many American, if you like, Israeli supporters in the US, also that they cannot.
And I think there is some grounds to it, because it seems that what America is offering, what Witkoff is going to offer tomorrow, from what we hear about it, he's going to offer a deal which is not going to work.
It's not a well-conceived, it's conceptually flawed.
There are two bigger gaps here.
Because what he's going to say is, we want big concessions from you on the nuclear issue in return for lifting the threat, that that is the threat of the AMADA sitting off the coast.
I think he's referring to that.
For lifting the threat, we want big concessions from you.
But this misconceives the negotiations.
Iran is not just wanting, it's not that frightened by the AMADA sitting off its shore.
It wants for any concessions it makes on the nuclear issue, it wants lifting of economic siege on Iran.
That, that is much more important to them.
But for Netanyahu and for others, the most important thing is the missiles and the destruction of the missiles.
And Iraqi and other Iranian officials said just last night, they repeated, there is no way missiles will be, they not up for negotiation.
So essentially, I think the negotiations have a conceptual problem.
They don't address what is the way in which an agreement might be achieved.
They are proposing something that is quite different.
Here is Prime Minister Nets and Yahoo yesterday, Chris Cut number one.
If a deal is to be reached, it should have several components.
Several components that we believe are important not only for the security of Israel, but for the security of the world.
The United States, the region, the world.
The first is that all enriched material has to leave Iran.
The second is that there shall be no enrichment capability, not stopping the enrichment process, but dismantle the equipment and the infrastructure that allows you to enrich in the first place.
And the third is to deal also with the questions of ballistic missiles.
There's an MTCR limitation of 300 kilometers.
And Iran is supposed to adhere to it.
Of course it doesn't, as the Rising Lion operation by itself manifested.
Everybody knows that.
And the fourth is stop the, dismantle the axis of terror that Iran has built.
It's been smashed, but it's still there.
It's trying to recover, as Iran itself is trying to do.
And the last thing is, remember Ronald Reagan's dictum, vis-à-vis the Soviet Union?
Trust but verify.
Distrust, distrust, and always verify.
So there has to be real inspections, substantive inspections, no lead-time inspections, but effective inspections for all of the above.
Why wouldn't the same conditions apply to Israel, Mr. Prime Minister?
Of course not.
Absolutely not.
But on this basis of what I, you know, Nednyahu's account of his meeting with Trump in Washington and his conditions, and he says, and he said this before at Mar-a-Logo, you know, if the conditions are not met that I have set out for you, I will either just go against you, I will not accept your negotiated outcome, and what is more,
I might reject it and publicly campaign against it because Israel has a standing in Washington which gives it, if you like, the ability to deny to any agreement you come to a kosher certificate.
In other words, to be legitimate in the eyes of Talmud.
So that is his threat.
And he said, if you still won't do it, and if you don't do it, then we will act independently and let's see you stand away from that war.
You can't.
You will have to get involved in it.
So it does look like we're heading towards the probability of war.
The Iranians are going to tackle these next talks, I think, in Geneva tomorrow by proposing, I mean, taking a leap out of the Ukraine-Russia talks,
a financialized benefit process where American companies can participate in, if you like, the oil and gas industry in Iran and trade and get benefit from that and other economic benefits.
But of course, it's tied.
It's tied not to just a withdrawal of the naval vessels from Iran, it's tied very explicitly only to a complete lifting of the economic and sanctions siege that has been placed upon Iran.
That matters to them far more than any other issue.
And that is what is not being addressed in these negotiations by Witkoff.
At least it hasn't been addressed so far.
It is always about limiting the negotiation process or to, if you like, to a limited amount of enrichment or none at all.
And then Witkoff keeps saying, we'll do that, okay, with you, we'll do that.
But then we'll go back and look at these other issues, missiles, proxies, Hamas, etc.
I don't think this is going to be acceptable to Iran.
And I don't think that probably the prospect of investing in Iranian oil will tip the balance.
I don't know how there can be any negotiations, Alistair.
The Iranians have quite properly rejected these conditions.
And Netanyahu keeps adding more.
First, it was no enrichment for military purposes.
Then it was no enrichment for any purposes, including medical.
Now it's destroy the equipment that does the enrichment.
Now it's limit your ballistic missiles so they can't reach Israel.
What country in its right mind would divest itself of the ability to attack its archenemy whose goal is to dismember it?
Well, precisely.
It's asking them to voluntarily concede up their sovereignty and their defensive capacity to Israel.
And Iran won't do that.
It just, it's not possible.
And, you know, the Supreme Leader's pretty clear and striking.
He was asked if, you know, he would speak to Trump.
And he said effectively, I wouldn't deign to speak to that man under any circumstances.
So that's how the Supreme Leader is sort of viewing it.
He views Trump as someone completely beyond even the value of engaging in a discussion with him.
So, I mean, Witkoff can come, but I mean, he's burdened by that as well.
Quite clearly, the Iranian leadership view Washington as untrustworthy and more than that, untrustworthy, deceitful, and really despicable in their moral values.
Think Trump's Shameful Effort00:01:15
I think that the Trump administration's position toward Ukraine is disgraceful.
I think the effort to force Ukraine into a surrender deal with Putin is shameful.
I think the effort that Putin and Trump are making to profit off the misery and death of the Ukrainian people is a historic error and corrupt to the nth degree.
So, I believe Ukraine is fighting for our democracy and our values of freedom and civilization on the front lines, losing thousands of people and having their country destroyed by one man's mania to control them.
And I think Trump either doesn't understand or could care less about that suffering.