Obama: No green light to Israel

Capital J

By Eric Fingerhut · July 7, 2009

Over the weekend, Vice President Joe Biden made news when he appeared to give a green light to Israel for a possible attack on Iran, saying that Israel had a "sovereign right" to make its own decisions on the issue. After 48 hours of fevered speculation, President Obama said emphatically today in an interview with CNN that it was "absolutely not" a green light.

"We have said directly to the Israelis that it is important to try and resolve this in an international setting in a way that does not create major conflict in the Middle East," Obama said, referring to Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"I think Vice President Biden stated a categorical fact, which is we can't dictate to other countries what their security interests are. What is also true is that it is the policy of the United States to resolve the issue of Iran's nuclear capabilities in a peaceful way through diplomatic channels," he said. Here's the video of the interview with CNN's Ed Henry: