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QUESTION: You say your international partners in the P5+1 would not support any new action on sanctions against Iran.

MS. HARF: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: At this point --

MS. HARF: Nuclear-related sanctions. Yeah.

QUESTION: Right. And – well, impose any new nuclear-related sanctions. Why haven’t we heard from them directly speaking against new sanctions legislation in Congress? Do you plan on lining up support to – sort of evidentiary interviews? Have you encouraged your partners to speak publicly on this to support your argument to the Senate?

MS. HARF: Yeah, it’s a good question and I’d make a few points. I think folks saw yesterday that the Joint Plan of Action took effect. Implementation began yesterday. The IAEA submitted a report on the steps Iran had taken to fulfill its commitments. We received the IAEA’s reports and technical briefing, and as a result of that determined that they had taken the steps they had committed to do. And so based on those actions, we took the steps we had committed to do. So I think it’s important to underscore in all of these discussions that for the first time in a decade, yesterday we saw Iran take credible, concrete, tangible, verifiable steps to halt the progress of their nuclear program. That’s significant. The next part of these negotiations is going to be much more difficult, but as of yesterday their program was not moving forward while we negotiate.

In terms of the P5+1 and the EU, I keep threatening to ask my EU counterpart Michael Mann to come do a briefing in the press room about their position on these issues – in a very joking way. But I’d make a couple points. The first is this is our Congress and it’s most appropriate for us to comment on our pending legislation. I think that, obviously, this is our political system to deal with, and I think our partners are certainly cognizant of that.

But that being said, we are all on the same page in our understanding of the first-step Joint Plan of Action that there are no new nuclear-related sanctions allowed. We are all united in believing that we are in an unprecedented moment for diplomacy here. We haven’t had an opportunity like this probably in the history of our dealings with Iran on its nuclear program, and quite frankly, we don’t know when we would have another one. Doesn’t mean it will be easy, and in fact, quite the opposite, but I do know that all of our partners and we are united in the belief that we have an obligation to test this diplomatic moment, as difficult as it is, and to not do things in any of our capitals that would make that more difficult. So obviously, the P5+1 and the EU are free to express their opinions and speak for themselves about how they view this, but I know we are all united in that, certainly.

QUESTION: All right. Just a quick follow-up on --

MS. HARF: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: Because congressional action is – would have such a direct effect on the interests of your partners abroad, because they have a direct interest in how the Iranian nuclear negotiations proceed – and joking aside, do you encourage your European partners (inaudible), even though it is the view of Congress and it is most appropriate for you to --

MS. HARF: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: -- comment on pending legislation – is it still appropriate for your partners to directly address --

MS. HARF: Absolutely. Yeah, no, Michael, I wasn’t indicating it wouldn’t be appropriate, just most appropriate for those of us who, in our political system, are dealing with this issue to comment. But certainly we welcome statements from the EU, from our P5+1 partners, underscoring what the JPOA, the Joint Plan of Action, does and doesn’t allow us to do, underscoring the importance of not doing anything to threaten that progress. So certainly we would welcome those statements, but I think we’ve made it very clear that we will make the case directly, both publicly and privately in the number of briefings we’ve done up on the Hill before and after implementation took place, to make our case directly to Congress.

So obviously, we welcome our partners making the same case. But last week, Under Secretary Sherman was on the Hill briefing Senate and House leadership on what was going to happen on implementation day. We’ve also been briefing a number of staffers and other members and have a number of other engagements with Congress planned for the coming days and weeks. So we are very committed to taking this case directly to Congress, and obviously we welcome if our partners did the same thing.

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