Obama: No N-deal would have led to war risk in Middle East

New York: President Barack Obama's campaign to convince Congress to support the Iran nuclear deal led him on Tuesday to Comedy Central's nightly political satire show The Daily Show where he took jabs at those opposing the agreement. In a back and forth on Comedy Central's nightly political satire show, Obama pushed back against hard questions from host Jon Stewart.

"This is an adversary. They are anti-American, anti-Semitic, they sponsor terrorist organizations like Hizbollah," Obama said of Iran.

"Sounds like a good partner for peace," Stewart responded sarcastically. "Well, as has been said frequently, 'you don't make peace with your friends,'" Obama said. "The issue here is, do we want them having a nuclear weapon? The answer is no."

Obama urged Americans to write their representatives in Congress to express their opinion of the deal. Tuesday's efforts widened the administration's efforts to gain support for the deal, from Capitol Hill to the general public.

Congress is reviewing the agreement, reached last week, and could vote to reject it. The process has prompted a lobbying effort on Capitol Hill from both the Obama administration and opponents of the accord.

The White House started the Twitter handle @theirandeal on Tuesday to inform Americans about the contents of the agreement. "With this deal, we have a chance to resolve the challenge of Iran trying to get a nuclear weapon peacefully. Without it, we risk yet another conflict in the Middle East," Obama said in his address to the Veterans of Foreign Affairs in Pittsburgh. "In the debate over this deal, we're hearing the echoes of some of the same policies and mindset that failed us in the past. Some of the same politicians and pundits that are so quick to reject the possibility of a diplomatic solution to Iran's nuclear programme are the same folks who were so quick to go to war in Iraq and said it would take a few months.

"We know the consequences of that choice, and what it cost us in blood and treasure. So I believe there's a smarter, more responsible way to protect our national security. And that is what we are doing," he argued.

"Instead of dismissing the rest of the world and going it alone, we've done the hard and patient work of uniting the international community to meet a common threat.

"Instead of chest-beating that rejects even the idea of talking to our adversaries, which sometimes sounds good in sound bites but accomplishes nothing, we're seeing that strong and principled diplomacy can give hope of actually resolving a problem peacefully," Obama said.