Obama: New Iran sanctions will lead to "failure of diplomacy"

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday warned that further sanctions on Iran pushed ahead by Congress would lead to "failure of diplomacy" in solving the Iranian nuclear issue.

"There are no guarantees that negotiations will succeed, and I keep all options on the table to prevent a nuclear Iran," Obama said in his second-to-last State of Union speech in front of a Republican-controlled Congress.

"But new sanctions passed by this Congress, at this moment in time, will all but guarantee that diplomacy fails."

The squabble over the new sanction bill was the latest of a series of issues which reflected hostility between the White House and a Republican-controlled Congress.

In a closed-door session with Senate Democrats on Thursday, Obama reportedly promised to stand firm against Republican efforts to dismantle his agenda and urged his Democratic colleagues to help sustain his expected vetoes. Enditem