State Department Press Secretary Jen Psaki was indirect when questioned about whether the U.S. would sign onto sanction relief for Iran prior to the rogue nation complying with international demands on their nuclear program Wednesday in the State Department press conference.
Psaki said she did not "want to make a prediction" whether that would be possibly because of the complexities of the negotiations between the P5 +1 and Iran.
However the State Department press secretary did imply preemptively lifting sanctions was discussed within the P5+1, stating "I'm not predicting that we will do anything with sanctions aside from the fact that obviously, that was a part of the discussion":
Q: And do you believe that it is possible for you to provide any sanctions relief in advance of Iran taking steps?
MS. PSAKI: I don't want to be --
Q: Whatever they might be.
MS. PSAKI: I don't want to make a prediction of that because, obviously, this is a very complex with many detailed negotiation and discussion with many different layers, and I'm sure that will be a discussion that is had when the delegation returns.
Q: But why -- I mean, you've long made the case -- and many people before you have made the case -- that the only reason the Iranians are willing to talk, the only reason you've gotten to this is because of the sanctions.
MS. PSAKI: Mm-hmm. (Agreement.)
Q: Why would you even consider lifting a finger on sanctions before they've done something?
MS. PSAKI: Well, I don't want to make a prediction and don't want to get into a hypothetical because we're not there. But broadly speaking, obviously, we -- as the secretary said, there was a crack in the -- diplomatic opening here -- I think he said it a little more eloquently, but -- and we had a discussion that was at a level of detail that we hadn't had in some time.
I'm not trying to overcrank how positive it was or what were the results from it. We don't know yet. There are technical discussions, there'll be another meeting in early November. And I'm not predicting that we will do anything with sanctions aside from the fact that obviously, that was a part of the discussion. Obviously, that will be a part of the discussion when our delegation returns.