Q    CBS News talked to Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif yesterday about the Friday decision or announcement of freezing of assets and transactions for companies evading existing sanctions.  He called it a very wrong move, and he said the process -- meaning the technical discussions -- over implementing phase one has been derailed, it has not died.  What’s your reaction to those comments, that the process of reaching agreement on phase one implementation has been derailed?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, we made clear, and I think that the Foreign Minister’s comments in many ways reinforced this, that implementing existing sanctions was always intended and not part of the Joint Plan of Action, not part of the preliminary agreement.  Our call on Congress to refrain from passing new sanctions came with it the assurance that we would continue to maintain the existing sanctions structure and we would continue to implement existing sanctions, which the action that was announced last week represented.

And we continue to prepare --

Q    Did that help you calm things down on the Hill a little bit?

MR. CARNEY:  It is a fulfillment of what we’ve been doing all along.  And again, the issue here is new sanctions versus existing sanctions.  Our view has been that Congress ought to wait until it is necessary, if it is necessary, to impose new sanctions, to pass new sanctions for a time when Iran either fails to meet its obligations on the preliminary agreement or fails to reach agreement with the P5-plus-1 on a comprehensive solution, our comprehensive agreement.  And if Congress were to do that it would have the kind of effect that sanctions are meant to, and rather than if they were to impose or pass new sanctions now, which could undermine our unity internationally with the P5-plus-1 and cause problems and potentially scuttle the initial preliminary agreement.

But I think that the point that’s been made here is that this administration has led the way in building the most comprehensive sanctions regime in history, led the way in building international consensus behind that and behind the central premise that the problem here was Iranian behavior -- not Western behavior, not American behavior, but Iranian behavior.  And the steps that President Obama took in his first term were persuasive, which allowed us to create that consensus.  And as you know, when it comes to this kind of sanctions regime, it’s only as effective as it’s been when it includes not just the United States but all of our international partners, which has been the case.

So we’re going to continue to implement the sanctions that exist, that have been implemented and then continue to work on preparing to implement the Joint Plan of Action.  And we’re prepared to meet again with our P5-plus-1 partners and Iran as soon as possible to resume the technical talks that were taking place last week.  The EU will make an announcement once the date for the talks is finalized.

Q    Do you agree the process has been “derailed,” in Mohammad Zarif’s words?

MR. CARNEY:  Well, no, we don’t.  We think that implementation of existing sanctions is completely in keeping --

Q    No, no, he’s talking about the process of working out the technical implementation of phase one.  That’s what he’s referring to.

MR. CARNEY:  Again, what you cited to me is that he was saying that was the result of the implementation of existing sanctions, and our position is of course that’s not the case.  And we certainly look forward to the resumption of technical talks.  It was always going to be the case that these highly complex, detailed technical conversations and negotiations would require the teams to return to their capitals, which is what happened, and we look forward to the resumption of those talks in the near future.