President Obama says the Iranian nuclear deal is the "right thing" to do regardless of Tehran's opaque future "because we can't bank on the nature of the regime changing."
In an interview with NPR, Obama said the most important goal in dealing with Iran is to prevent it from acquiring a nuclear weapon; convincing Tehran to make progress on other fronts — like human rights and the propagation of violence in the region — would be welcome, too, but not as necessary.
"The deal is not dependent on anticipating those changes," Obama said. "If they don't change at all, we're still better off having the deal."
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