President Barack Obama has answered continuing Israeli criticism of the framework agreement over Iran�s nuclear ambitions, telling the New York Times the deal is a �once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see whether or not we can at least take the nuclear issue off the table�.

The president added: �There is no formula, there is no option, to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon that will be more effective than the diplomatic initiative and framework that we put forward � and that�s demonstrable.�

Two days after the announcement of the deal between Iran and the major world powers � achieved in Switzerland after 18 months of talks and which must be finalised by the end of June � Obama spoke to the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman at the White House for an interview that was published online on Sunday.

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