Obama: We’ve Reached ‘a Historic Understanding with Iran, ‘It Will Make Our World Safer’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
BARACK OBAMA: "Good afternoon, everybody. Today the United States, together with our allies and partners, has reached a historic understanding with Iran, which if fully implemented will prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon. As president and commander in chief, I have no greater responsibility than the security of the American people. And I'm convinced that if this framework leads to a final comprehensive deal, it will make our country, our allies, and our world safer. This has been a long time coming. The Islamic republic of Iran has been advancing its nuclear program for decades. By the time I took office, they were operating thousands of centrifuges. And Iran was concealing a covert nuclear facility. I made clear that we were prepared to resolve this issue diplomatically but only if Iran came to the table in a serious way. When that did not happen, we rallied the world to impose the toughest sanctions in history, sanctions which had a profound impact on the Iranian economy. Now, sanctions alone could not stop Iran's nuclear program, but they did help bring Iran to the negotiating table. Because of our diplomatic efforts, the world stood with us, and we were joined at the negotiating table by the world's major powers, the united Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, and China, as well as the European union. Over a year ago, we took the first step towards today's framework with a deal to stop the progress of Iran's nuclear program and roll it back in key areas. And recall that at the time skeptics argued that Iran would cheat and that we could not verify their compliance and the interim agreement would fail. Instead, it has succeeded exactly as intended. Iran has met all of its obligations. It eliminated its stockpile of dangerous nuclear material. Inspections of Iran's program increased, and we continued negotiations to see if we could achieve a more comprehensive deal."