Obama: NYT report on U.S.-Russia 'Iran deal' was inaccurate

United States President Barack Obama said Tuesday that the New York Times report according to which he had offered to scrap a U.S. missile defense system in Europe if Russia works to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, was inaccurate.

"The New York Times didn't accurately characterize the letter," Obama said.

"what I said in the letter [To Russian President Medvedev] is the same thing that I've said publicly, which is that the missile defense that we have talked about deploying is directed towards not Russia, but Iran."

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's spokesman confirmed Tuesday that he has received a letter from Barack Obama.

"We have received this letter," Natalya Timakova told reporters during a visit by Medvedev to Spain. "It was in fact a reply to a letter from Medvedev sent to Obama after his appointment. The letter contained an assessment of the situation, but there were no concrete proposals about any mutually binding decisions."

Obama offered the deal in a letter hand-delivered to Medvedev in Moscow last month by top administration officials, the newspaper reported, citing unidentified U.S. officials.

A senior U.S. official confirmed to Reuters that Obama had sent a letter on the subject to his Russian counterpart.

"We can confirm that President Obama sent a letter to President Medvedev," the senior U.S. official said.

"The letter touched on a range of subjects, including missile defense and how it relates to the Iranian threat."

Russia vehemently opposes the deployment of a U.S. missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. The system was proposed by the administration of former president George W. Bush.

Answering a question on the same subject, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a Jerusalem press conference Tuesday that the defense system was aimed at stopping Iranian missiles.

"What we have said specifically in regard to missile defence in Europe is that it has always been intended to deter any missiles that might come from Iran," Clinton said after talks with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. "It remains our position. We have explained that to the Russians before."

"There's a broad agenda to discuss with the Russians. We're going to be starting that on Friday," she said of her planned meeting with Lavrov in Geneva.

William Burns, the State Department's political director and a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, went to Moscow in February to help prepare for that meeting and to broach ideas to improve ties.

Burns indicated compromises on missile defense, telling Russian officials the Obama administration was willing to slow plans for a shield in Eastern Europe if Russia agreed to help stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

Vice President Joe Biden has signaled the Obama administration's wish to change tack with Russia, telling a security conference in Germany that it was time to hit the "reset" button with Moscow.

Kerry warns Iran's leaders on nukes

John Kerry, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, warned that the 'full weight of the international community will come down' on Iranian leaders if they fail to heed the West's warnings and pursue their nuclear weapons program.

"By full weight I mean tougher economic sanctions, further restrictions on trade and finance, which will apply meaningful pressure on the Iranian regime at a time when oil prices have plummeted and its economy is hurting," Kerry said.

The senator commented on statements made by the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, who told CNN on Sunday that he believed Iran had amassed sufficient quantities of enriched uranium to build a nuclear weapon.

"We have to stop them from taking that very dangerous next step," Kerry said.

Among the "most troubling questions", Kerry mentioned documents that were reportedly found on a laptop computer obtained by the CIA in 2004.

"Among the thousands of pages of data from that computer are, according to press reports, documents that appear to show blueprints for a nuclear warhead and designs for missiles to carry it," Kerry said.

Kerry reminded the Committee members that "Iran has built a uranium enrichment plant approximately 75 feet underground at Natanz where nearly 4,000 centrifuges are spinning away enriching uranium, with hundreds more centrifuges apparently ready to start up soon."

"Just two weeks ago, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that the plant has enriched enough reactor-grade uranium to theoretically allow Iran to make an atomic bomb," Kerry said.