Clinton defends Obama on Iran talks

-- Hillary Clinton is defending President Barack Obama's decision to extend talks with Iran over dismantling its nuclear program. "I think it is a very important effort to conti
nue to pursue, and to try to see if we can reach an agreement that is in line with our requirements," Clinton said Friday night.

But she called for a tough approaching in the talks that were recently extended for seven more months, saying she is "strongly of the view that no deal is better than a bad deal."

"A deal that verifiably closes all of Iran's pathways to a nuclear weapon -- and the key there is verifiably, and all, including covert efforts -- that is what is at the center of this negotiation," Clinton said. "And I think, one might say remarkably, our partners have not jumped ship. They have stayed in the negotiation." Her comments came during an hour-long question-and-answer session with Haim Saban, a major Democratic donor, in an event hosted by the Brookings Institution.

Clinton has claimed credit for starting those talks with Iran during her tenure as President Barack Obama's Secretary of State -- and the issue could remain a hot topic if, as is widely expected, she seeks the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016. Republicans have criticized the Obama administration's handling of the Iran talks, and have argued that they'd advance legislation to impede any deal that would allow Iran to continue to enrich uranium. Clinton said she wishes she had "spoken out more" during the so-called Green Revolution after the 2009 elections in Iran. She said the State Department urged Twitter to hold off on a maintenance update because the social media tool provided a communications channel that was fueling protests there.

Iran is not the only issue where Clinton refused to distance herself from the Obama administration that came up Friday night. She backed the Obama administration on Israel -- a traditional ally with which tensions have been strained following White House warnings about civilian casualties in Gaza, and an Obama administration official, quoted anonymously, referred to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as "chickens---."

"Nobody can argue with the commitment of this administration to Israel's security," she said.

She acknowledged that the two countries have disagreements. "We're two raucous democracies ... you do get carried away from time to time," Clinton said.

And Clinton said an upbeat jobs report issued Friday morning is "not an outlier" and predicted that the economy would continue to improve in the coming two years. Washington (CNN)