Senate reviews timeline for Iranian sanctions

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Iranian sanctions won't be reviewed until December at the earliest.

"I don't think it's the White House's hope, nor the leadership of the Senate's hope that that occur," he was quoted as saying Monday by news website Politico. "So I don't think anything will happen until we get back from Thanksgiving recess."

Corker, R-Tenn., said lawmakers are expected to review a bipartisan bill on Iranian sanctions at some point but the scope of the sanctions may depend on the outcome of multilateral nuclear negotiations with Iran.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called for a pause in sanctions pressure as negotiators try to give diplomacy a chance to work. Recent negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland, were described as productive, though they fell short of a breakthrough.

Kerry said Monday from Washington the strategy for diplomacy remains the same.

"There must be a verifiable, certain, failsafe process by which the guarantee of not getting a nuclear weapon is clear to all," he said in a statement.

Iran is suspected of pursing the technology needed to manufacture a nuclear weapon, an allegation it denies.