Obama: more work still needed on Iran nuclear deal

US President Barack Obama said on Friday the Iran nuclear deal has been successful so far but more work needs to be done to implement the agreement.

Obama, speaking after a meeting of the six world powers that reached the deal with Tehran last summer, said the road to that agreement was not easy.

“Full and continued implementation is going to take the same kind of cooperation and consultation,” Obama said at the Nuclear Security Summit.

“This deal does remind us that when the international community stands as one we can advance our common security.”

The US president said it will take time for Iran to reintegrate into the global economy.

“This is a success of diplomacy that hopefully we'll be able to copy in the future,” Obama told reporters.

On protecting nuclear material

Obama also told the global nuclear security summit that the world had made progress in preventing terror groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS from acquiring nuclear weapons, but more needs to be done.

He said terrorists will find it harder to obtain nuclear material thanks to a “key treaty” ratified by 102 nations, Obama added, saying he expected it would be effective soon.

“Working together, our nations have made it harder for terrorists to get their hands on nuclear material,” he said at the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington referring to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material.

He said the world has “measurably reduced” the risk from nuclear weapons.

But he also warned that thousands of tons of fissile material lies in stockpiles, under sometimes patchy security, and that material the size of an apple could cause devastation that would change the world.

(With Reuters, AFP)