Obama Says Netanyahu Speech Offered No New Ideas

President Barack Obama said Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t offer any new objections to negotiations with Iran or any alternative course during his speech to U.S. lawmakers.

Obama said that while he didn’t watch the speech he did have a chance to look at the transcript of Netanyahu’s address.

“As far as I can tell, there was nothing new” in the remarks, Obama told reporters before the start of a meeting with Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter at the White House.

“On the core issue, which is how to we prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” he said, “the prime minister didn’t offer any viable alternatives.”

Netanyahu wants no deal to be struck even though evidence from the past decade shows that sanctions alone won’t be sufficient to halt Iran’s nuclear program, Obama said.

The “bottom line is this: we don’t yet have a deal,” Obama said. If the talks result in an agreement, Obama said he’ll be able to prove that it’s the best way to prevent Iran from developing a weapon.