Obama launches 60 day offensive to sell Iran deal

Washington, July 16: President Barack Obama launched a 60-day campaign to sell the historic nuclear deal with Iran to lawmakers and the nation at large, challenging its Republican critics to present a better alternative. Taking his case to the media, he asserted at an hour-long news conference at the White House Wednesday that the deal would prevent Iran from making nuclear weapons and claiming that the alternative is military force. "Either the issue of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon is resolved diplomatically, through a negotiation, or it's resolved through force, through war," he said. "Those are the options." "If the alternative is that we should bring Iran to heel through military force, then those critics should say so. And that will be an honest debate," Obama said asking the Republicans and its global critics like Israel to present an alternative. "It is incumbent on the critics of this deal to explain how an American president is in a worse position -- 12, 13, 14, 15 years from now -- if, in fact, at that point, Iran says, 'We're going to back out of the (deal), kick out inspectors, and go for a nuclear bomb,'" he said. Claiming that the chief goal in the marathon negotiations between six world powers led by the US and Iran was to ensure Tehran cannot make a nuclear bomb, Obama said: "This deal is our best means of ensuring Iran does not get a nuclear weapon." Obama also hit back against critics who said that international inspectors would not have instant access to nuclear sites anywhere in the country, saying the deal established thorough monitoring "24-7".