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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