Focus On Iran As Netanyahu, Obama Meet At White House

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (left) shakes hands with U.S. President Barack Obama in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on September 30.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged U.S. President Barack Obama to keep the pressure on Iran as Western nations and that country pursue negotiations.

Obama and Netanyahu met at the White House on September 30, three days after Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rohani spoke by telephone in the highest-level U.S.-Iranian contact in more than three decades.

Obama said Iran must prove its sincerity in negotiations by taking action to resolve concerns about its nuclear program.

He pledged the United States would not move prematurely to ease sanctions on Iran and reaffirmed that military action remains an option.

American ally Israel has accused Iran of seeking to use negotiations as a ruse to get more time to develop a nuclear weapon.

Iran denies trying to make an atomic bomb.

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP