Obama vows to veto US sanctions legislation

President Barack Obama today reiterated his vow to veto any US legislation that increases economic sanctions against Iran.

"I said my Democratic caucus colleagues yesterday that I will veto a bill that comes to my desk," Obama said in a joint press conference with UK prime minister David Cameron.

Negotiators from six global powers and Iran in November agreed to extend nuclear talks by seven months until 30 June. An interim agreement has permitted Iran to export 1mn-1.1mn b/d of crude. Iran is Opec's third largest oil producer.

US secretary of state John Kerry was scheduled to meet today with Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Paris to continue discussions over Iran's nuclear program.

However, some US lawmakers have grown impatient with the extended negotiations.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Bob Corker (R-Tennessee) on 13 January said the chamber's Banking Committee was expected to sanctions legislation that would require lawmakers to bless any agreement the US administration might reach with Iran.

The legislative response will move along parallel tracks, and lawmakers will assess "the best route to take," Corker said.

Corker's committee has scheduled a hearing to provide "perspectives on the strategic necessities of Iran sanctions" on 20 January, just hours before Obama is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address.

This is not the first time Obama has threatened such action. Last January in his 2014 State of the Union address, he also said he would veto new sanctions on Iran.

Obama and Cameron both said that additional US Iran sanctions would not be helpful at this point in the diplomatic negotiations and could potentially jeopardize current talks, since the deal that brought the Iranian government back to the negotiating table is based on the fact that no new economic sanctions would be implemented.

Obama was responding specifically to a question about a sanctions bill that would only be activated if diplomacy fails.

"You will hear arguments that these, technically, are not new sanctions they, are simply laws putting in place the possibility of new sanctions," Obama said. "I can assure you, that is not how Iran would interpret it or how our partners would interpret it."

Cameron said he has been talking to senators as well, making the case "that further sanctions or further threat of sanctions at this point will not actually help to bring the talks to a successful conclusion, and they could fracture the international unity that there's been which has been so valuable in presenting a united front to Iran."

Obama said that if the negotiations fail "we have to look at other options" to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, including, perhaps, a military response. But Obama noted: "I am not, repeat, not suggesting that we are in immediate war footing should negotiations with Iran fail."

kp/dcb