WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama hailed the nuclear deal with Iran on Friday as a "substantial success" and a model for future diplomacy, as world leaders took stock of the world's most worrisome nuclear threats.
Hosting his last nuclear security summit, Obama sought to use the controversial Iran deal as an argument for his carrot-and-stick approach to deterring nuclear proliferation, and he credited Iran with taking steps to meet its commitments. Critics of the deal in the U.S. and abroad are livid about the sanctions relief Iran is receiving in response.
"It will take time for Iran to reintegrate in the global economy, but Iran is already beginning to see the benefits of this deal," Obama said as he met with the leaders of China, France and other U.N. Security Council members that negotiated the Iran deal alongside the U.S.
Obama acknowledged that the nuclear deal hasn't swept away other issues the U.S. and other nations still have with Iran; support for terrorism and Tehran's ballistic missile program typically top that list. Still, he said all the nations that negotiated the deal could agree that it's been an effective way to address the narrower issue of nuclear proliferation in Iran.
"This is a success of diplomacy that hopefully we will be able to copy in the future," Obama said.
The huddle on the sidelines of the nuclear summit started off the final day on an optimistic note, as Obama worked to illustrate that progress has been made on his watch on stopping the spread of nuclear weapons. Yet the dozens of world leaders assembled were equally focused on other threats that have only increased in recent years, such as the harrowing prospect of the Islamic State group or other extremists getting their hands on a nuclear bomb.
Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.