Concerns in the Middle East continue to be a big topic of debate for the candidates seeking to be the next President of the United States.  A part of that the country of Iran.

During an interview on national television, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said Hillary Clinton called President Barack Obama “naïve” for saying he would “sit down and talk to the Iranians” during the 2008 Democratic Primary.

PolitiFact Florida heard the claim and gave it a HALF TRUE rating on the Truth-O-Meter.

PolitiFact writer Joshua Gillin said Clinton did say those words, but there’s a lot of nuance to the claim.  During a 2008 Democratic debate, both then-Senator Obama and Clinton said  they would be open to sitting down with Iran and other countries the George W. Bush Administration refused to speak with, but Obama said he would do it without pre-conditions.

Hillary Clinton took a different approach.

“Her comment about being naïve came a little later though when she said it would not be right to do this in the first year of the presidency and then just sit down without having sent in envoys and get things going,” Gillin said.

Gillin went on to say President Obama did not sit down with those countries during the first year of his presidency.  That actually didn’t happen until 2015.

For that reason, this statement was rated HALF TRUE.

SOURCE:  Clinton calls Sen. Obama "naive" over Iran debate statment