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Amid reports that a nuclear deal with Iran is a near possibility, the White House today reiterated that negotiations are the best way to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
"The best way for us to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon is sitting down at the negotiating table and getting Iran to make very specific commitments that would prevent them from obtaining a nuclear weapon and getting Iran to make commitments, as it relates a set of historically intrusive inspections that would allow us to verify that Iran is abiding by the agreement and is not in a position to acquire a nuclear weapon," Press Secretary Josh Earnest said.
"The other thing that we have been steadfast in repeating is that if we are successful in reaching an agreement with the Iranians by the end of March, this is -- that's the deadline for a political agreement, that it would not at all resolve the long list of concerns that we continue to have with the Iranian regime," he said.
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"We have seen the Iranian regime utter disgraceful threats toward our closest ally in the region in Israel. We have seen Iran actively engaged in supporting terror activity around the globe. We know that Iran continues to wrongly detain American citizens inside of Iran. So we have a rather long list of concerns with Iran and their behaviour," he said.
"Even if we are able to reach a nuclear agreement, those other lists of concerns won't go away. In fact, what we have said is, given that long list of concerns, it's all the more important that we succeed in the effort to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon," the press secretary said.
Earnest said the Iranians, during the negotiations, have demonstrated a willingness to have constructive conversations.
"But, what is just as true is we are going to insist, in the context of those negotiations, that Iran agree to historically intrusive inspections so that we can verify their compliance with the agreement," he said.
"The best way to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon is at the negotiating table, because if the United States or somebody in the international community had to resort to the military option, that would prompt the Iranians to kick out all of the inspectors and would reduce our visibility into their programme, and therefore could make it easier for them to try to develop a covert option," he said.
"That so-called covert option is one that is very challenging for them right now, and would become only more challenging in the context of a negotiated solution to the situation with their nuclear programme," he said.
"We do believe that we have made important progress over the last few weeks. I can say that we've made some important progress, but as the president acknowledged in his interview, there are some still some substantial gaps that remain, and I wouldn't change the assessment that we've offered earlier about the likelihood of the agreement," Earnest said.
