CBNNews.com - During a campaign speech in Iowa, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said the world should put stronger pressure Iran before Israel is forced to act.

"My job as president would be to try to make sure that we are tightening the screws diplomatically on Iran, that we've mobilized the world community to go after Iran's [nuclear weapons]program in a serious way, to get sanctions in place so that Iran starts making a difficult calculation," Obama said.

"We've got to do that before Israel feels like its back is to the wall," he said, adding that he chose not to speculate on Israel's right to take military action.

"I don't want to speculate on whether or not Israel feels like it has a green light or not because that would be speculation," he said.

"What is not speculation is that we have to act much more forcefully and effectively on the world stage to contain Iran's nuclear capabilities," Obama told the crowd.

Source: Reuters