The State Department on Tuesday refused to say whether it was responsible for blocking sanctions against Iran for that country’s ballistic missile testing.
Some reports said the Treasury Department wanted to go ahead with sanctions against Iran just before New Year’s Day, but that State argued in an interagency meeting not to go ahead because of protests from Iran. When asked if that happened, spokesman John Kirby avoided a direct answer.
“We take very seriously the ballistic missile program that Iran continues to pursue,” Kirby said in reply. “We have tools at our disposal, particularly in terms of sanctions that we have used in the past. We are still open to using them in the future.”
When asked again if State was behind the delay, Kirby hinted at a split within the various agencies, but wouldn’t say which agency supports which actions.
“There continues to be a robust interagency discussion about moving forward on sanctions for this particular program, and that’s about as far as I can go,” he said.
When it was pointed out that Kirby wasn’t denying reports that State wanted a delay, Kirby tried to reject the idea that Iran or anyone else could stop a decision to impose sanctions.
“Those claims are fairly simplistic, you know, that somebody just raises a hand … and says nope, nope, stop the bus. That’s not the way it works,” he said.
And when pressed again to answer whether State opposed sanctions, Kirby indicated he wasn’t sure what happened.
“I don’t know,” he said. “You’d have to talk to the sources that offered these claims.”
The Obama administration has been criticized by many Republicans for delaying sanctions, which has led to speculation that officials are worried that sanctioning Iran would prompt Iran to abandon the nuclear agreement. But Kirby insisted Tuesday that the administration is not afraid to sanction Iran, and repeated that sanctions have been delayed by “technical issues.”
“There is absolutely no soft-pedaling with respect to Iran and their destabilizing activities,” he said. “There is no queasiness here in the United States about holding Iran accountable for their destabilizing activities in the region.”
“The message to anyone thinking that the United States is somehow becoming weak on Iran or soft-kneed, our message would be, that is absolutely false and not true,” he added.
Kirby declined to explain what technical issues are preventing sanctions from being imposed. “We’ve got some technical issues we’re working out,” he said.
