President Obama scolded Iran for following the letter of the nuclear deal but not the "spirit" during his Friday news conference.
Obama, whose administration led the negotiations for the nuclear deal that was reached last year, pointed out Iran's recent launching of ballistic missiles, hostility toward Israel and providing of weapons for the terror group Hezbollah as destabilizing practices that make businesses hesitant to want to go there.
"Now what I would say is also important is Iran's own behavior in generating confidence that Iran's a safe place to do business," Obama said. "In a deal like this, my first priority, my first concern was making sure that we got their nuclear program stopped and material that they already had that would give them a very short breakout capacity, that that was shipped out.
"That has happened, and I always said that I could not promise that Iran would take advantage of this opportunity and this window to re-enter the international community. Iran so far has followed the letter of the agreement, but the spirit of the agreement involves Iran also sending signals to the world community and business that it is not going to be engaging in a range of provocative actions that might scare business off.
"When they launch ballistic missiles, with slogans calling for the destruction of Israel, that makes businesses nervous. There is some geopolitical risk that is heightened when they see that taking place. If Iran continues to ship missiles to Hezbollah, that gets businesses nervous. And so part of what I hope happens is we have a responsibility to provide clarity about the rules that govern so that Iran can, in fact benefit, the Iranian people can benefit from an improved economic situation.
"But Iran has to understand what every country in the world understands, which is businesses want to go where they feel safe, where they don't see massive controversy, where they can be confident that transactions are going to operate normally, and that's an adjustment that Iran is going to have to make as well."