State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf defended the Obama administration's call for a "pause" in new Iranian sanctions Monday in the State Department press conference.
Harf claimed the administration is asking for only a "short pause" in additional sanctions and is not advocating removing any measures already in implementation.
"Our negotiating team believes it's the best way to take a short pause, to give that diplomacy a chance to play out," the State Department spokeswoman said:
Q: Marie, the secretary of state called on Congress to postpone any kind of new sanctions and so on in Iran. How should the Iranians perceive this or interpret it?
MS. HARF: Well, I don't -- I don't know if I'll say how they should interpret it, but I'll -- let's just talk a little bit about this. This -- we're only asking for a pause of a short period of time here. And what we want is for our sanctions to be lined up with our negotiating strategy. So we have an obligation right now to test this cautiously encouraging tone that we hear out of the new Iranian government. Our negotiating team believes it's the best way to take a short pause, to give that diplomacy a chance to play out a little bit be cause, indeed, it's all of our, and Congress', preference that this be resolved diplomatically. There's numerous statements from members of Congress who have spoken to this issue. So we'll keep working with Congress. They've been an incredibly important partner. We wouldn't be at the table where we are today if it hadn't been for the incredibly tough sanctions that certainly the international community, but also Congress, imposed on Iran. So we'll keep having the discussion with them but we very firmly believe that we -- our sanctions strategy needs to be linked up and in sync with our negotiating strategy, that the U.S. needs to speak with one voice when we're sitting down at the table here to try and negotiation, which is going to be a tough diplomatic process.
The White House's call to stop additional pressure on the Iranians comes amid reports that Tehran's annual celebration of the 1979 take over of the American embassy included chants of "Death to America":
As Tehran held its largest anti-U.S. rally in years, several leading Jewish groups say they are resisting pressure from President Obama to stop lobbying for new Iran sanctions.
Tens of thousands of demonstrators joined Monday in chants of "Death to America" to mark the anniversary of the 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
"Fighting the global arrogance and hostile policies of America is the symbol of our national solidarity," said Saeed Jalili, a leading opponent of nuclear talks and senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.