Barack Obama
Barack ObamaReuters

After Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's Congress address on Tuesday, which US President Barack Obama had fiercely opposed, Obama said there was "nothing new" in the speech.

Obama claimed Netanyahu "did not offer any viable alternative" to the Iran nuclear deal being formulated ahead of a March 31 deadline in comments from the Oval Office, reports AFP.

The president has refused to meet Netanyahu during his visit to the US capital and said he did not watch the speech but saw a transcript.

"I am not focused in the politics of this, I am not focused on the theater," Obama sniped. "As far as I can tell, there was nothing new."

He added "on the core issue, which is how to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon which would make it far more dangerous, the prime minister did not offer any viable alternatives."

"We don't yet have a deal. But if we are successful, this will be the best deal possible with Iran to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon," he stated.

Despite Obama's claims, Netanyahu did in fact outline a plan to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon in his speech.

In his address, Netanyahu called to uphold the existing crippling sanctions on Iran until it yields to three key conditions.

"First, stop its aggression against its neighbors in the Middle East; second, stop supporting terrorism around the world; and third stop threatening to annihilate my country Israel, the one and only Jewish state!" said Netanyahu.

He added that "at the very least," the nuclear deal "should insist that Iran changes its behavior before the deal expires. If Iran wants to be treated like a normal country, let it act like a normal country."

Netanyahu called on America to stand firm on sanctions and impose these conditions, and if Iran enacts its bluff to walk away from talks he assured they will return, noting "they need the deal a lot more than you do!"