White House delays new sanctions on Iran

On Thursday, The Wall Street Journal said the White House had delayed plans to slap new sanctions on Iran but added that the measures remained on the table.

Mr Rouhani’s action yesterday came a day after USA administration officials sent to Congress a list of potential new sanctions against Iran over recent missile tests, which appeared to have violated a United Nations Security Council prohibition.

“I would expect the Iranians to complete the work necessary to move forward with implementation in the coming weeks”, Rhodes said.

REUTERS/Brendan SmialowskiU.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L), U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz (2nd L), Head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation Ali Akbar Salehi (2nd R) and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif (R) wait with others ahead of a meeting at the Beau Rivage Palace Hotel in Lausanne on March 26, 2015. Iran also recently aired television footage of an underground missile base.

Hours after circulating a draft of proposed sanctions on Wednesday, however, the White House did not provide a timetable or even say that they would be put into effect. Not only are there significant United States sanctions, in addition to global ones, to deal with, but Republican candidates in this year’s presidential election are pledging to scrap the nuclear agreement if they win office.

He said Iran’s missiles have not been created to carry nuclear warheads and that they’re merely used as “an important and standard tool” for defense purposes. The agreement reached previous year after months of talks and relentless pressure on Tehran, above all with Washington, involved a major winding back of Iran’s nuclear programs, including its uranium stockpiles and its capacity to enrich uranium, and the reconfiguration of the heavy water research reactor being built at Arak.

Ballistic missiles follow a high, arching trajectory before falling under gravity to their target, unlike low-flying cruise missiles.

USA and European officials, in private, have said they hope the sanctions relief could lend political support to Mr. Rouhani, whose allies are facing tough competition from conservatives in national elections in late February.

The official Islamic Republic News Agency said Mr Rouhani, responding to the United States government’s “illegal intervention in Teheran’s right to boost its defensive power”, had instructed the Defence Minister, Brigadier-General Hossein Dehghan, to “quickly and firmly continue with plans to produce different missiles needed by the country’s armed forces”.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced Wednesday that it was considering sanctions against a number of Iranian and worldwide individuals and agencies for their alleged involvement in developing Iran’s ballistic missile program.

The officials gave no definitive timeline for when the sanctions would be imposed, it said. He said there was no provision in the nuclear deal that bans ballistic missiles.

Any such sanctions would be far narrower than the broad measures scheduled to be lifted under the nuclear deal.

Colleen McCain Nelson in Honolulu and Asa Fitch in Dubai contributed to this article.