Regime change in Iran: A regime that cannot be trusted

We do not have, in my judgment, a reasonable chance of persuading the ayatollahs to agree with us on any sensible approach toward nuclear weapons.

The agreement that is being negotiated is worse than worthless, and will only add to the impetus behind moving toward more and more nuclearization of the Middle East as well as the outside world. We need to stop that.

If we cannot bring about a change of regime through the brave operations of those in this room and their friends and allies in Iran and elsewhere, the only way to keep Iran and the mullahs themselves from having this kind of horrible power is war. I do not welcome it. I do not urge it. I do not wish it.

But some things are worse than war. And the control of the types of nuclear weapons and the program that the mullahs are engaged in, as far as I am concerned, are worse than war.

• Mr. Woolsey is a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The above was adapted and excerpted from remarks he gave at the June 13 conference in Paris.