White House press secretary Jay Carney intimated new sanctions for Iran could be possible today in the White House press briefing. The revelation was somewhat surprising considering the administration's very public push against additional sanctions in Congress.
Recent reports indicate the administration began secretly courting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in the weeks and months after his election by easing Treasury designations of Iranian entities.
The Daily Beast's Josh Rogin asked Carney how the administration could convince the regime that any additional Treasury designations were not tantamount to new sanctions.
Carney drew a fine line in his response, noting the Geneva deal specifically references nuclear sanctions but does constrain the Obama administration from enforcing existing punitive measures through designations. He added the deal does not prohibit the administration from introducing new penalties pertaining to Iran's sponsorship of terrorism or its "abysmal human rights record":
JOSH ROGIN: [...] Following this week's designations of Iranian entities by the Treasury Department, the Iranian delegation at implementation talks in Geneva protested and suspended those talks, claiming that those designations are tantamount to new sanctions and violate the spirit of the deal reached in Geneva only weeks ago. How do -- how do we convince -- how do you plan to convince the Iranians that designations and sanctions are two different things? And what is the strategy for getting back to the implementation talks so that we can start the clock ticking on this deal?
JAY CARNEY: Well, the agreement very clearly referred to nuclear sanctions and also very clearly referred to the fact that existing sanctions would continue. Technical talks between the P-5 plus one and Iran were held from December 9th through December 12th in Vienna to discuss the implementation details of the joint plan of action, and we made progress in those discussions, and we consider the atmosphere during those discussions constructive. Now, these were complicated technical issues, and after four days of detailed talks all teams have returned to their capitals for further consultations, and that was always the plan. We continue to do the necessary work to prepare to implement the joint plan of action and are prepared to meet again with our P-5 plus one partners and Iran as soon as possible to resume these technical talks. Now, in terms of what the Iranians have said about their delegation, I will simply point you to the delegation and to Iran for them to speak for their actions. But let's be clear, the designations announced yesterday were related to the enforcement of existing sanctions, and we have made clear all along that we would continue to enforce existing sanctions. As the president said, to the extent permissible within our political system, we have committed to refrain from imposing new nuclear-related sanctions. That does not prevent us from implementing and enforcing our existing nuclear-related sanctions, which of course we will do, as we said, or from imposing new sanctions targeting Iran's sponsorship of terrorism or its abysmal human rights record. We have been clear with Iran throughout this process that we will continue to enforce existing sanctions, which is consistent with what was done yesterday, the action taken yesterday. You know, we -- but let's be clear also that we continue to oppose passage of new nuclear-related sanctions for the reasons that we've discussed now for several weeks, because we believe that the purpose of this most effective and comprehensive sanction regime that has been built up by this administration, with our partners, was to see if we could compel Tehran to change its behaviors, to come to the negotiating table and to commit itself to actions aimed at proving to the international community that Iran was prepared to abide by its international obligations and to forsake a nuclear weapons program. So we have a preliminary agreement, the Joint Plan of Action, and these technical discussions continue.
At the end of Rogin's questioning Carney reiterated he expects the administration to continue implementing existing sanctions, possibly with new Treasury designations:
ROGIN: (Off mic) -- new designations to be continued?
CARNEY: I think you can expect us to continue to implement existing sanctions. And where that requires new designations, that I'm sure will be what we do.