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Q    Can you update us on Iran talks?  And has the President talked to Netanyahu?

MR. EARNEST:  At this point, I don't have any specific calls from the President to read out to you.  As was reported overnight, Secretary Kerry has traveled to Geneva, where he will participate in some of the conversations that are ongoing there.  He is participating in those talks in the hopes that he can play an instrumental role in narrowing the differences that currently exist between the P5-plus-1 and the Iranians. 

So I don't have any additional updates to provide to you beyond sort of observing that that is the current state of affairs.  And if there are more details to report out, I would anticipate that my colleagues who are traveling with the Secretary in Geneva would be able to keep you apprised of them on a short-term basis.

Q    Israel is completely rejecting the deal that seems to be emerging.  Netanyahu says that Iran got everything and had to pay nothing.  So what do you make of your closest ally saying that this is something that would make their safety be a risk?

MR. EARNEST:  One thing that’s important for everybody to understand is that there is no deal.  The reason, as I just mentioned to Roger, that Secretary Kerry has traveled to Geneva is to see if he can narrow the differences between the P5-plus-1 -- which is the United States and our negotiating partners -- and the Iranians.  So any critique of the deal is premature.

It's also important for observers in this process to not lose sight of the fact that the United States and Israel are in complete agreement about the need to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.  The Israelis have expressed their serious concerns because of the threat that Iran having a nuclear weapon would pose to their nation's security.  The nation of Israel is a close ally of the United States, so we obviously are concerned about their security, too. 

But Iran having a nuclear weapon would also have a terribly destabilizing impact on the broader Middle East.  This is already a very volatile region, and having one country with a nuclear weapon, like Iran, that has been very combative and engaged in some inflammatory rhetoric would be destabilizing throughout the entire region.  The last thing we need to see is a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

So there are a couple of very good reasons why it's important for Iran not to obtain a nuclear weapon.  And you have seen this President play a leading role in the effort to put in place sanctions that are bringing Iran to the negotiating table.  The only reason that Iran has come to the negotiating table to explore the possibility of demonstrating to the international community that their nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful means is because there is a very tough sanctions regime that’s in place, both bilaterally between Iran and the United States, but also a set of multilateral sanctions that have taken a severe toll on the Iranian economy. 

And we have seen -- there's now an Iranian -- now the Iranian leadership is responding to that, to the pressure of those economic sanctions, and coming to the table and seeking to resolve this dispute with the international community in a peaceful way.

So we're going to consider those conversations.  But just to be clear, let me begin where I began, which is there no deal in place, and the whole reason that Secretary Kerry has traveled to Geneva is to see if he can narrow the differences that currently exist between the Iranians and the P5-plus-1.

Q    What is the modest easing of sanctions that the United States would consider offering in this?

MR. EARNEST:  I don’t want to get ahead of any of the discussions that currently underway there.  But what we have said about the relief that we would consider is that it would be proportional to whatever concessions the Iranians themselves make.  The relief that would be provided would be completely reversible.  This is not an open-ended proposition that we’re considering here. 

And the other thing that we are resolved to is protecting the broader architecture of the sanctions program.  That sanctions regime architecture has been critical to bringing the Iranians to the table.  This sanctions architecture has put enormous strain on the Iranian economy, has put enormous strain on the Iranian leadership.  And it’s the reason that we’re having these conversations right now.  So it wouldn’t make sense at this point to start taking this architecture apart.

But in terms of the details, that’s part of what they’re talking about, so I don’t want to be any more specific about that from here.

Q    Josh, the Israelis with the Saudis as well have expressed concerns about any rapprochement with Iran.  How do concerns from important allies in the region temper the U.S. approach to making any deal with Iran?

MR. EARNEST:  Well, I think a lot of what I said about Prime Minister Netanyahu’s comments applies to the concerns that have been raised by the Saudis, which is it is in the interest of the United States and our allies all across the world and in the region that Iran not obtain a nuclear weapon.  That is precisely the effort that we are engaged in right now, which is to force the Iranian regime to live up to their international obligations, particularly those obligations that are guaranteed by the Non-Proliferation Treaty.  There are also obligations that Iran has to the United Nations Security Council that they failed to meet. 

The United States and President Obama are determined to ensure that the Iranians live up to those obligations.  The President has played a leading role in putting in place these sanctions that have taken a terrible toll on the economy, that have put pressure on the Iranian regime to bring them to the table to come into compliance with those obligations.

So we have a very clear, I think what you could describe even as a pretty transparent strategy, and that strategy has made some really important progress.  We have a situation where the Iranians are at the negotiating table, and we do feel like those negotiations are progressing.  But there is no deal, but there is an opportunity here for a possible diplomatic solution, and that is exactly what the President is pursuing -- a diplomatic solution that would lead to the kind of guarantees that the international community could be confident in, could be confident that the Iranian regime is living up to their international obligations.  This would be transparent inspections, intrusive inspections that would guarantee some transparency into the program so that the Iranian regime could guarantee to the international community that their nuclear program exists for exclusively peaceful purposes.

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Q    Is the President making any calls from the plane on Iran?  Or has he spoken to Secretary of State Kerry to offer guidance, thoughts, instructions?

MR. EARNEST:  I don’t have any calls from the plane to read out at this point.  And I don’t know if he has spoken to Secretary Kerry today.  I don't believe that he has.  But I don't have any calls to Secretary Kerry to read out at this point.  But if there are calls and we're in a position to read them out, then I'll make sure that you guys get them.

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