President Barack Obamas framework for a deal with Iran on its nuclear program drew the fire of a prominent Florida congresswoman this week.
Obama met with the media on Wednesday and said his administration was making progress to get Iran to abandon its nuclear efforts.
"Whether we can actually get a deal done, we're going to have to find out over the next three to four weeks, Obama told the media. We have presented to them a framework that would allow them to meet their peaceful energy needs.
Obama insisted sanctions and other punitive measures were helping ensure Iran would not produce nuclear weapons.
"We have been able to freeze their program, in some cases reduce the stockpile of nuclear material that they already had in hand, Obama said. The discussions, the negotiations have been constructive.
"I've said consistently that I'd rather have no deal than a bad deal -- because what we don't want to do is lift sanctions and provide Iran legitimacy but not have the verifiable mechanisms to make sure that they don't break out and produce a nuclear weapon, Obama added.
That last comment drew the fire from U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., the chairwoman of the House Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee.
President Obama at todays press conference repeated that he would rather have no deal than a bad deal with Iran on its nuclear program, but he has yet to clearly define what a good deal would entail, Ros-Lehtinen said. According to the narrative coming from the White House thus far, the U.S. and P5+1 arent aiming to actually prevent Iran from ever acquiring a nuclear weapon, but instead are simply seeking to push back the length of time it would take the regime to achieve full nuclear breakout capacity.
The president speaks of verifiable mechanisms and monitoring, but the reality is that we have no way of fully monitoring or accurately verifying Irans nuclear activities, Ros-Lehtinen added. The only way to verify Iran is not conducting any illicit nuclear activity is if Iran's nuclear program is completely shut down. Many of us in Congress believe that the only acceptable deal with Iran would see the regime cease all enrichment and dismantle its nuclear infrastructure. This is the only way to ensure Iran can never produce a nuclear weapon, not simply just delay its timing, and protect our national security interests as well as the security of our allies, like the democratic Jewish state of Israel and others in the region.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
