US, Iran Reach Preliminary Nuclear Agreement

After months of negotiations, the Obama administration has reached what it calls a "historic understanding" with Iran over its nuclear program.

President Barack Obama spoke from the White House on the milestone agreement.

"This framework would cut off every pathway that it would take to develop a nuclear weapon," he said Thursday from the Rose Garden.

"Iran will face strict limitations on it program and Iran has agreed to the most robust and intrusive inspections and transparency regimes every negotiated for any nuclear program in history," he said.

The two countries are still in dispute, however, on how much of the plan should be made public.

The preliminary agreement comes after the foreign ministers of China, France and Russia pulled out of the talks which had run well past the Tuesday deadline. Secretary of State John Kerry opted to remain at the negotiating table.

Earlier Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif accused the international community, particularly the United States, of having "defective" political will in the talks.

"Iran has exhibited that political will. Iran has shown its readiness to engage with dignity and it is time for our negotiating partners to seize the moment and use this opportunity, which may not be repeated," Zarif said.

Frustrated American officials warned that the United States was also prepared to leave the table.

"If we are in a situation where we sense that the talks have stalled, then yes, the United States and the international community is prepared to walk away," White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters.

Meanwhile, many lawmakers in Congress, fed up with days of shaky negotiations, have been encouraging the White House to walk away and reapply pressure on Iran with tough new sanctions.

In a joint statement, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said "any hope that a nuclear deal would lead Iran to abandon its decades-old pursuit of regional dominance through violence and terror is simply delusional."

Still, despite growing criticisms of the Obama administration's negotiating strategy, the White House said as long as the talks are making progress, the U.S. won't leave them.

A new Quinnipiac poll released earlier this week finds more than half the voters in three critical swing states are not pleased with negotiations with Iran.

According to the poll, three in five voters believe the Iranians are incapable of negotiating in good faith.

**CBN News spoke with Peter A. Brown, associate director of the the Quinnipiac University Poll. Click the player below to see his analysis of the poll's findings.