Spotlight: U.S. says more time needed to prepare for sanctions over Iran's missile program

In what is widely interpreted as an attempt to de-escalate tension between Tehran and Washington, the White House said Saturday it needs more time before announcing any sanctions over Iran's ballistic missile program.

While stressing that the Iran nuclear deal will not impede future sanctions against Iran, Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, said the U.S. government has more diplomatic and technical work to do before making the final decision to slap punitive measures against Iran.

"The fact of the matter is we have additional work that needs to be done before we would announce additional designations, but this not something that we would negotiate with the Iranian government," Rhodes said, "They don't get a say in who we impose sanctions on."

Rhodes made the remarks in Hawaii, where President Barack Obama is on vacation.

Rhodes denied that the additional work is a result of pressure from Tehran.

"We fully expect them to protest our sanctions. They do that when they know we're preparing them. They do that after we make announcements of designations," Rhodes said.

In this latest case, he said, "We just have additional work that we need to do as a U.S. government before we would announce additional designations."

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

The U.S. announcement triggered angry response from Iran. On Thursday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani asked the country's defense ministry to vigorously expand Iran's missile capabilities, in case the United States insists on its "false and interfering measures."

Iran will respond to any new U.S. sanctions and interfering measures over its defensive missile program, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said Thursday.

The fresh U.S. threat to blacklist companies and individuals in connection with Iran's missile program came weeks after Iran launched a ballistic missile.

In October, Iran announced that it test-fired a long-range Emad missile, which it said "could be guided and controlled until hitting the target with high precision."

A UN experts' report in December said that Iran violated UN Security Council Resolution 1929 by test-firing the Emad missile as it is capable of delivering a nuclear warhead.

The UN report said that the Emad ballistic missile has a range of "no less than 1,000 km with a payload of at least 1,000 kg."

Under Resolution 1929, Iran is prohibited from working on ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads.

Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan later said the Emad missile was "totally conventional," dismissing the report that Iran violated UN Security Council Resolution 1929.

The test launch was based on Iran's own interests for enhancement of its deterrent power, the minister said, "Iran will not accept any restrictions in this regard."

Iran and six world powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- signed a historic nuclear deal in July to imposes limits on the Iranian nuclear program in return for lifting economic sanctions.

Under the deal, Iran will also receive natural uranium from Russia and Kazakhstan to be used in nuclear reactors for future energy production.

In December, a total of 11 tons of low-enriched uranium was shipped to Russia from Iran while Norway has helped verify a shipment of 60 tons of raw uranium to Iran, as part of the nuclear deal.

In the same month, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also decided to close a 12-year probe into whether Tehran had a nuclear weapon program. Endi