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Asserting that President Barack Obama wants to avoid another war in the Middle East, the White House today said that diplomacy is the best way to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
"It's not just that the (US) President wants to try to avoid another war in the Middle East, he does, it is that diplomacy is the best way for us to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapon," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at his daily news conference.
He said people who would be comfortable being described as proponents of military action against Iran, acknowledge that military action would only have the effect of setting back Iran's nuclear programme for two, or three, or maybe four years.
"The fact is, this diplomatic agreement is going to set back Iran's nuclear program by more than 10," he said in response to a question.
According to him, there has been a robust dialogue back and forth and there have been a number of members of Congress that have sought one-on-one briefings with senior national security officials, that have sought classified briefings, that have participated in all member classified briefings that our negotiators have hosted on Capitol Hill.
After President Obama's speech on Iran yesterday at least five democrats have come out in support of the deal, he said.
"We shouldn't go down this path (of war) again. We need to learn from the mistakes that were made in 2003. And when people say it's not worth it to waste our time with diplomacy and that military action is easy and painless and that we should neglect and even ignore the opinions of our closest allies in the world," he argued.
"That's the same argument that was made in 2003, and that's the argument that we're hearing from many Republicans who are advocating against the deal here in 2015," he asserted.
