US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a telephone conversation on Monday on Tehran's nuclear program, just hours after US Secretary of State John Kerry announced plans to "accelerate" talks with Iran over a nuclear deal.
"The president reaffirmed to the prime minister that the United States is focused on reaching a comprehensive deal with Iran that prevents Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and verifiably assures the international community of the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program," the White House said in a statement, the Hill reported.
Iran denies the allegation that it may have been seeking to develop the capability to build nuclear weapons, saying its program is meant only for peaceful applications, including electricity generation.
Kerry said he planned to meet later this week in Geneva with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a bid to give talks with Tehran a boost.
"The meeting is calculated to take stock, number one, and to provide direction to our teams, number two, and to hopefully be able to accelerate the process to make greater progress," Kerry said earlier Monday.
Negotiators have twice failed to meet a deadline on a comprehensive deal, under which the US would roll back economic sanctions in exchange for constraints on Tehran's nuclear work for a specified period of time.
