President Obama has reassured critics of nuclear talks with Iran that he will not support an agreement that threatens US security, saying, "if there's no deal, then we walk away." The president spoke in an exclusive interview with CBS News on Sunday, where he was commemorating the 50th anniversary of the "Bloody Sunday" civil rights march.
"If we cannot verify that they are not going to obtain a nuclear weapon, that there's a breakout period so that even if they cheated we would be able to have enough time to take action. If we don't have that kind of deal, then we're not going to take it," Obama said.
The administration and five other world powers have until March 24 to reach an agreement with Iran. The US wants to see Iran abandon its ambitions for a nuclear weapon, but would still allow the country to enrich plutonium for peaceful purposes.
"Over the next month or so, we're going to be able to determine whether or not their system is able to accept what would be an extraordinarily reasonable deal, if in fact, as they say, they are only interested in peaceful nuclear programs.
"And if we have unprecedented transparency in that system, if we are able to verify that in fact they are not developing weapons systems, then there's a deal to be had, but that's going to require them to accept the kind of verification and constraints on their program that so far, at least, they have not been willing to say yes to," said the president.
He acknowledged that the talks have taken on "urgency" because they have been going on for well over a year.
The good news, he said, is that Iran has abided by the terms of the interim agreement and not advanced its nuclear program during that time.
"We're not losing anything through these talks," he said.