President didn’t address Iranian seizure of Navy boats in State of the Union speech

The White House before Tuesday night’s speech pledged that the president wouldn’t discuss the crisis, and Obama stuck to that plan despite pressure from Republicans and criticism from political pundits on television.
He did, however, tout the Iranian nuclear deal that his administration led negotiations on.
 “As we speak, Iran has rolled back its nuclear program, shipped out its uranium stockpile, and the world has avoided another war,” the president said.
After two Navy riverine craft and the sailors onboard — nine men and one woman — were seized by the Iranian IRGC in the Persian Gulf on Tuesday, the question of whether Obama would address the incident loomed over his speech.
Some Republicans issued statements urging the president to address the incident, which highlighted continuing tensions with Iran despite the nuclear agreement.
Others predicted he would not mention the incident at all.
Surprisingly, the president did not speak at length about the nuclear deal with Iran that he was expected to tout as a foreign policy achievement.
Instead, he put the deal into the context of his overall foreign policy approach, which he called “patient and disciplined.”
“That’s why we built a global coalition, with sanctions and principled diplomacy, to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran,” he said.
White House communications director Jen Psaki had previewed the president’s speech earlier Tuesday, saying that “there are no plans to address the sailors’ seizer issue.