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Feb 2, 2014 4:53pm

WASHINGTON Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is siding with President Obama on the issue of sanctions against Iran, saying Congress should hold off on imposing any additional sanctions while diplomatic negotiations run their course.

Clinton conveyed her stance in a letter to Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, last month.

Now that serious negotiations are finally under way, we should do everything we can to test whether they can advance a permanent solution, the letter said. As President Obama has said, we must give diplomacy a chance to succeed, while keeping all options on the table.

The U.S. intelligence community has assessed that imposing new unilateral sanctions now would undermine the prospects for a successful comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran. I share that view, Clinton said. It could rob us of the diplomatic high ground we worked so hard to reach, break the united international front we constructed, and in the long run, weaken the pressure on Iran by opening the door for other countries to chart a different course.

I have no doubt that this is the time to give our diplomacy the space to work. If it does not, there will be time to put in place additional sanctions in the future, with greater international support necessary to ensure enforcement, and to explore every other option on the table, she said in the letter.

The letter came in response to a request from Levin, who asked her to weigh in on the issue.

This is a thoughtful, persuasive argument from an experienced, respected senior official, Levin said. It makes clear Secretary Clintons belief that tough sanctions helped bring Iran to the negotiating table, and that Congress and the administration are poised to act if Iran violates its commitments or fails to negotiate in good faith toward a final agreement.

Her letter is another strong signal to Congress that we should not take any legislative action at this time that would damage international unity or play into the hands of hard-liners in Iran who oppose negotiations, he said.

Obama has said he would veto any legislation calling for new sanctions against Iran at this time.

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Hillary Clinton Sides With Obama on Iran Sanctions

WASHINGTON Hillary Rodham Clinton is backing President Obamas opposition to new economic sanctions against Iran.

Obama announced in his State of the Union address last week that he would veto any legislation that called for such sanctions, as negotiations to extend an interim nuclear weapons agreement proceed. Some prominent Republicans support new sanctions.

Clinton, the former secretary of State and presumed early frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, detailed her position in a Jan. 26 letter to the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan.

Clinton, who wrote to Levin at his invitation, said that the negotiations should be given a chance to succeed.

"Now that serious negotiations are finally underway, we should do everything we can to test whether they can advance a permanent solution," Clinton wrote two days before Obamas speech.

She added that new sanctions "could rob us of the diplomatic high ground we worked so hard to reach, break the united international front we constructed, and in the long run, weaken the pressure on Iran by opening the door for other countries to chart a different course."

A copy of Clintons letter was released by Levin on Sunday after Politico wrote about it.

On Nov. 24, a U.S. delegation led by Secretary of State John F. Kerry, Clintons successor, joined by Russia, China, Great Britain, France and Germany, reached the interim agreement with Iran. In exchange for relaxed economic sanctions worth approximately $7 billion per year Iran agreed to freeze and partially roll back aspects of its nuclear program, which it has said would be for civilian, not military, purposes.

On Dec. 10, an assessment from U.S. intelligence agencies provided to the administration and Congress said that "new sanctions would undermine the prospects for a successful comprehensive nuclear agreement with Iran," according to a subsequent letter to Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) from 10 Democratic colleagues.

The Obama administrations stance toward Iran became a focal point of congressional debate, with implications for the 2014 midterm elections and, perhaps, presidential politics.

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Backing Obama, Hillary Clinton opposes new Iran sanctions

Hilarious Hillary! Former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton sent out a good-humored tweet poking fun at Fox while Super Bowl XLVIII was being broadcast on the network Sunday, Feb. 2.

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"It's so much more fun to watch FOX when its someone else being blitzed & sacked! #SuperBowl," she joked, using football terminology with her 1. 1 million plus followers on Twitter.

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Longtime Democrat Clinton, 66, shared the tweet several hours after President Obama gave his annual Super Sunday interview, this year to conservative Fox News host Bill O'Reilly of The O'Reilly Factor. The two went head-to-head on issues ranging from the Affordable Care Act and the IRS scandal, to the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic embassy in Benghazi, Libya -- the latter which occurred when Clinton was Secretary of State at the time.

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The President later called out O'Reilly and said, "These kinds of things keep on surfacing because you and your TV station will promote them."

As of the following morning, Clinton's post was re-tweeted more than 54,000 times. Her press secretary Nick Merrill told USA Today that the tweet "was good-natured, light-hearted, and self-deprecating."

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Hillary Clinton Jokingly Mocks Fox During Super Bowl: Read Her Tweet

NEW YORK, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an apparent dig at the Fox network in a Twitter post during the Super Bowl.

"It's so much more fun to watch FOX when it's someone else being blitzed & sacked! #SuperBowl," Clinton posted from @HillaryClinton.

While nothing specific was mentioned, the post was interpreted as a reference to Fox News Channel's coverage of Clinton, such as the ongoing controversy stemming from the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other diplomatic employees were killed nearly 18 months ago, ABC News reported.

Her post came several hours after President Obama had a heated exchange with Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly over the network's coverage of his administration. In the pre-game interview, O'Reilly questioned Obama on the attack on the consulate and the IRS scandal, in which the IRS was accused of going after Tea Party organizations seeking tax-exemption status. The president said such stories have been drummed up by Fox News.

"These kinds of things keep on surfacing in part because you and your TV station will promote them," the president said.

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Hillary Clinton tweets a dig at Fox News during Super Bowl