Obama: 'I will walk away' from a bad Iran deal
Jun 30, 2015 18:15:07 #
By Susan Crabtree | June 30, 2015 | 1:33 pm
President Barack Obama speaks during a joint news conference with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Tuesday, June 30, 2015, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
With nuclear negotiations with Iran stretching into another week, President Obama said he is still willing to walk away from a potential nuclear accord with Iran if Tehran doesn't not agree to a verifiable inspections process that satisfies the U.S. and the other world powers involved in the negotiations.
"There has been a lot of talk on the other side by the Iranian negotiators about whether in fact they can abide by some of the terms that came up in Lausanne," Obama said, referring to a Swiss city where the U.S. and Iran reached a breakthrough on a framework for a deal back in early April.
"If they cannot, that's going to be a problem," he said. "Because I've said from the start, I will walk away from the negotiation if, in fact, it's a bad deal."
"If we can't provide assurances that the pathways for Iran attaining a nuclear weapon are closed and if we can't verify that the inspections regime the verification regime is inadequate then we're not going to get a deal, and we've been very clear to the Iranian government about that," he continued.
But the president, who made the statements during a joint press conference with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, was more nuanced in describing his attitude toward Iranian negotiators. The ability to reach a nuclear accord with Iran is not based on trust, but on setting of a "verifiable" process to "cut off a pathway" for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.
The tensions and divisions between the U.S. and Iran are "deep-seated" and have developed over time and "aren't going away overnight," Obama said.
U.S. negotiators earlier Tuesday announced that talks would extend to July 7, beyond the original June 30 deadline to reach a deal.
Obama is under new pressure from skeptics in Congress and the foreign policy world to walk away from the negotiations if the Iranians refuse to make the necessary concessions to ensure that their nuclear development will be limited to peaceful purposes at least for the duration of the deal.
The framework agreement that negotiators reached in Lausanne on April 2 "if implemented and codified properly," Obama said, "would achieve my goal, which is Iran not attaining a nuclear weapon."
"There's still some hard negotiations left to take place," he said. "Ultimately, it's going to be up to the Iranians to determine whether they meet that requirement to be able to fairly and accurately and consistently assess whether they have foreclosed the possibility of attaining a nuclear weapon."
President Barack Obama speaks during a joint news conference with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Tuesday, June 30, 2015, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
With nuclear negotiations with Iran stretching into another week, President Obama said he is still willing to walk away from a potential nuclear accord with Iran if Tehran doesn't not agree to a verifiable inspections process that satisfies the U.S. and the other world powers involved in the negotiations.
"There has been a lot of talk on the other side by the Iranian negotiators about whether in fact they can abide by some of the terms that came up in Lausanne," Obama said, referring to a Swiss city where the U.S. and Iran reached a breakthrough on a framework for a deal back in early April.
"If they cannot, that's going to be a problem," he said. "Because I've said from the start, I will walk away from the negotiation if, in fact, it's a bad deal."
"If we can't provide assurances that the pathways for Iran attaining a nuclear weapon are closed and if we can't verify that the inspections regime the verification regime is inadequate then we're not going to get a deal, and we've been very clear to the Iranian government about that," he continued.
But the president, who made the statements during a joint press conference with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, was more nuanced in describing his attitude toward Iranian negotiators. The ability to reach a nuclear accord with Iran is not based on trust, but on setting of a "verifiable" process to "cut off a pathway" for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.
The tensions and divisions between the U.S. and Iran are "deep-seated" and have developed over time and "aren't going away overnight," Obama said.
U.S. negotiators earlier Tuesday announced that talks would extend to July 7, beyond the original June 30 deadline to reach a deal.
Obama is under new pressure from skeptics in Congress and the foreign policy world to walk away from the negotiations if the Iranians refuse to make the necessary concessions to ensure that their nuclear development will be limited to peaceful purposes at least for the duration of the deal.
The framework agreement that negotiators reached in Lausanne on April 2 "if implemented and codified properly," Obama said, "would achieve my goal, which is Iran not attaining a nuclear weapon."
"There's still some hard negotiations left to take place," he said. "Ultimately, it's going to be up to the Iranians to determine whether they meet that requirement to be able to fairly and accurately and consistently assess whether they have foreclosed the possibility of attaining a nuclear weapon."
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