US ‘committed to preventing a nuclear Iran’

WASHINGTON: The Obama administration pushed ahead Monday with an effort to end its standoff with Israel, arguing that the focus on tensions between the allies obscured a larger truth that the United States would never jeopardize the Jewish state’s security by allowing Iran to become a nuclear power.
Addressing this year’s annual policy conference of the American-Israel Political Action Committee, Samantha Power, President Barack Obama’s UN ambassador, highlighted the billions of dollars in military assistance Washington provides and the constant defense the US provides Israel at the United Nations.
Power, however, didn’t give ground on Iran.
“We believe diplomacy is the preferred route to secure our shared aim. But if diplomacy should fail, we know the stakes of a nuclear-armed Iran as well as everyone here. We will not let it happen,” Power said.
Iran says its nuclear program is solely for peaceful energy and medical research purposes.
Negotiators are trying to reach a framework agreement by the end of the month and a full deal by July.