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Obama: Israel knows Iran’s nuclear program halted  President says that despite Netanyahu’s criticism, Jerusalem aware that Tehran has frozen progress for duration of talks

BY TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF December 22, 2014 Despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s criticism of Washington’s handling of negotiations with Iran, Israeli intelligence acknowledges that Tehran has made no advancements during the past year and a half of talks, US President Barack Obama said Sunday……

Speaking in an interview with CNN’s Candy Crowley, the president defended his diplomacy-focused foreign policy, saying that “where we can solve problems diplomatically, we should do so.” Obama said the American-led effort to reach a negotiated solution to defusing Iran’s nuclear program was an example of a successful diplomatic campaign.

“You look at an example like Iran, over the last year and a half, since we began negotiations with them, that’s probably the first year and a half in which Iran has not advanced its nuclear program in the last decade,” Obama told the news outlet.

The American leader said Iran’s halted progress was “not just verified by the United Nations and the… IAEA and ourselves,” but that “even critics of our policy like the Netanyahu government in Israel, their intelligence folks have acknowledged that, in fact, Iran has not made progress.”

Obama’s remarks were supported by a confidential IAEA report leaked last week which said Iran is honoring the interim nuclear agreement reached last year with the P5+1 world powers.

The document, obtained by Reuters on Friday, showed that Tehran was not enriching uranium above a five-percent concentration, and that it has not made “any further advances” at two enrichment facilities and a heavy water reactor which was under construction.

Read more: Obama: Israel knows Iran’s nuclear program halted | The Times of Israel http://www.timesofisrael.com/obama-israel-knows-irans-nuclear-program-halted/#ixzz3Mquj29GG