us president barack obama  said on monday that iran should commit to a verifiable freeze of  at least 10 years on its nuclear activity for a landmark atomic  deal to be reached, but said the odds were still against sealing  a final agreement in an interview with reuters at the white house, obama said  that a rift over israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu's  planned speech to congress opposing the iran deal on tuesday was  a distraction that would not be 'permanently destructive' to  us israeli ties but he said there was a 'substantial disagreement' between  his administration and the israeli government over how to  achieve their shared goal of preventing iran from acquiring  nuclear weapons scroll down for video  us president barack obama speaks during an  interview in the library of the white house in washington monday he said iran must halt their nuclear work  earlier on monday in a speech on monday to the american israel public affairscommittee (aipac) netanyahu warned that a nuclear deal could threaten israel's survival  'if, in fact, iran is willing to agree to double digit years  of keeping their program where it is right now and, in fact,  rolling back elements of it that currently exist  if we've  got that, and we've got a way of verifying that, there's no  other steps we can take that would give us such assurance that  they don't have a nuclear weapon,' he said the us goal is to make sure 'there's at least a year  between us seeing them try to get a nuclear weapon and them  actually being able to obtain one,' obama said israel fears that obama's iran diplomacy, with an  end of march deadline for a framework nuclear agreement, will  still allow its arch foe to develop an atom bomb tehran denies  it is seeking nuclear weapons netanyahu has spoken scathingly about a possible deal,  saying negotiators appear to have given up on a pledge to  prevent iran from acquiring nuclear weapons he says a  nuclear armed iran would pose an existential threat to the  jewish state obama sought to downplay the long term damage from the row  over netanyahu's speech to congress, saying the rift was not  personal and that he would meet the israeli leader again if he  wins israel's march 17 election 'this is not a personal issue i think that it is important  for every country in its relationship with the united states to  recognize that the us has a process of making policy,' obama  said but obama said netanyahu had been wrong before with his  opposition to a 2013 interim deal with iran israel fears that obama's iran diplomacy, with an end of march deadline for a framework nuclear agreement, will still allow its arch foe to develop an atom bomb  'netanyahu made all sorts of claims this was going to be a  terrible deal this was going to result in iran getting 50  billion dollars worth of relief iran would not abide by the  agreement none of that has come true 'it has turned out that in fact, during this period we've  seen iran not advance its program in many ways, it's rolled  back elements of its program' the white house last week denied a report that the united  states and iran were exploring a possible 10 year deal that  would initially freeze iran's nuclear program but gradually  allow it to increase activities that could enable it to produce  nuclear arms in the last years of the agreement in a speech on monday to the american israel public affairs  committee (aipac), the largest us pro israel lobby, netanyahu  again warned that a nuclear deal could threaten israel's  survival while insisting the us israeli relationship was  'stronger than ever' asked about the prospects for a final deal with iran, which  has a june 30 deadline, obama said that a key doubt was whether  iran would agree to rigorous inspection demands and the low  levels of uranium enrichment capability they would have to  maintain 'but if they do agree to it, it would be far more effective  in controlling their nuclear program than any military action we  could take, any military action israel could take and far more  effective than sanctions will be,' obama said a comprehensive nuclear deal is seen as crucial to reducing  the risk of a wider middle east war, at a time when iran is  deeply involved in conflicts in syria and iraq
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the president gave an interview to reuters on monday . obama said that a rift over netanyahu's speech to congress opposing the iran deal on tuesday was a distraction . obama said there is 'substantial disagreement' between his administration and israeli government over preventing iran from getting a nuke . the president also told reuters monday that netanyahu had been wrong before with his opposition to a 2013 interim deal with iran 