First, rather than taking a partisan position, Obama is taking a tight and pragmatic approach to Iran:

I’ve been very clear that I don’t take any options off the table with respect to Iran. I don’t take options off the table when it comes to U.S. security, period. What I have said is that we want to offer Iran an opportunity to align itself with international norms and international rules.

Second, Obama differentiates between US security policy and that of Israel and acknowledges that they need not always be in alignment on every issue:

No, look, I understand very clearly that Israel considers Iran an existential threat, and given some of the statements that have been made by President Ahmadinejad, you can understand why.

So their calculation of costs and benefits are going to be more acute. …I don’t think it’s my place to determine for the Israelis what their security needs are.

This makes sense as the US can’t be in the business of constantly trying to micromanage the security policies of Israel one way or another.

Finally, Obama knows that, although some methods are certainly better than others, there is not an obvious solution to solve the issues with Iran:

Now, will it work? We don’t know. And I assure you, I’m not naive about the difficulties of a process like this. If it doesn’t work, the fact that we have tried will strengthen our position in mobilizing the international community, and Iran will have isolated itself

Godspeed Obama!