Obama: Better deal simply not available, world won’t cooperate

Obama rejects the criticism that there was a “better deal” available.

On suggestion that Iran might dismantle all nuclear infrastructure: “Neither Iran’s government or opposition or people will agree to what they will view as a total surrender of their sovereignty.”

“Moreover, our closest allies in Europe or Asia, much less China or Russia, are not going to agree to enforce existing sanctions for another 5, 10, 15 years according to the dictates of US Congress.”

“The willingness to enforce sanctions in the first place was based on Iran agreeing not to build nuclear weapons, not to prevent peaceful nuclear power. Certainly not for regime change in Iran.”

“If we tried to maintain unilateral sanctions, we’d be standing alone. To sanction Iran, we’d have to cut off countries like China from our financial system.”