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Q Robert, when Secretary Clinton said yesterday that the years spent reaching out to Iran produced very little, do you agree that that's true, or has there been some benefit of the open hand approach to Iran?

MR. GIBBS: I don't know the remark you're referring to. If you look back -- if you look at where we are now with our partners in the P5-plus-1, particularly our Russian counterparts, and you look at where we were with our Russian counterparts more than a year ago, about whether or not we were all moving together towards the next steps that must take place if time runs out and the Iranians decide not to live up to their international responsibilities, I don't think anybody can look at that situation and say that we haven't made dramatic progress in bringing the world forward.

I think that -- if you look at the IAEA offer around the research reactor, there was a very clear choice for the Iranians either to demonstrate to the world that their program was not a nuclear weapons program, but instead what they maintained was a peaceful program; or whether they were going to tell the world through their actions that what they sought for their nuclear program was something different. I think that decision isn't made by the IAEA, it was made by the -- it was made in the response by the Iranians.

Again, I don't think anybody could look at the situation and not believe that we aren't in a different place with the international community. I think one has to only look at the statements of our P5-plus-1 partners or look at the strength and the unity and the vote -- including Russia and China -- around the board of governors decision to actively sanction Iran and for the first time call for the dissolution of their nuclear program. I think that represents real and genuine progress that the President believes will pay dividends in the coming weeks.

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