White House Spokesperson Jay Carney told reporters Wednesday that the U.S. plans to continue pursuing a resolution with Iran on its controversial nuclear program in the wake of revelations that Israel detained a ship heading from Iran to Gaza with missiles on board. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – White House Spokesperson Jay Carney told reporters Wednesday that continuing to pursue a diplomatic resolution with Iran on its controversial nuclear program is still appropriate even in the wake of Israel’s interception of a ship containing Syrian-made missiles on the way from Tehran to Gaza.

“We continue to have enormous issues with Iran, its sponsorship of terrorist organizations, its bad behavior in the region that manifests itself in many ways. And we continue to take all the necessary steps to address those challenges,” Carney said.

“Even as we continue efforts to resolve our concerns over Iran’s nuclear program through diplomacy, we will continue to stand up to Iran’s support for destabilizing activities in the region, in coordination with our partners and allies, and made clear that these illicit actions are unacceptable to the international community and in gross violation of Iran’s U.N. Security Council obligations,” he said.

Carney also revealed that the U.S. intelligence services and military collaborated with Israel in the mission to track and stop the Iranian ship. “Throughout this time our intelligence and military activities were closely coordinated with our Israeli counterparts who ultimately chose to take the lead in interdicting this shipment of illicit arms,” he said.