White House press secretary Jay Carney refused to renew his December prediction that the Iran sanctions bill would not pass the Senate Friday in the White House press conference:
REPORTER: Last December -- well, last month, I guess -- you said that you didn't believe that the sanctions bill would pass the Senate. Is that still the White House -- (inaudible) --?
JAY CARNEY: We believe that it -- that the bill would be detrimental to our efforts to pursue a resolution with Iran through the P-5 plus one, a peaceful resolution. I -- you know I think that we remain hopeful that Congress will not pass such a sanctions bill, because of the negative effect that would have on the ongoing negotiations, and the potential to resolve this peacefully. But I'm not going to make legislative predictions.
Carney's tacit reversal comes on the heels of news today the Senate has achieved a veto-proof 77 vote threshold on the sanctions legislation.
The proposal would introduce additional penalties for Iran should they renege on last fall's nuclear deal.
