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 Aides and lawmakers said Reid had filed Rule 14 for the sanctions
bill, which allows him to bypass the normal process of bringing a
bill for a Senate vote through committee.
A spokesman for Reid did not respond to requests for comment.
Reid's action sets the stage for a potential battle between more
than 25 Republican and Democratic senators who are co-sponsoring the
new Iran sanctions legislation and the Obama administration and its
supporters in Congress, including the Democratic heads of 10 Senate
committees.
The bill introduced on Thursday would require reductions in Iran's
petroleum production and apply new penalties to other industries if
Iran violates an interim agreement or fails to reach a final
comprehensive agreement.
But it also gives the administration up to a year to pursue a
diplomatic track, which backers of the bill said would not violate
terms of the interim deal.
The Obama administration has insisted that the bill would disrupt
delicate talks being held between Tehran and world powers. Iran's
foreign minister has said a new sanctions law would kill the interim
agreement reached in Geneva on November 24.
A White House spokesman threatened a veto if it passed.
Obama accused Congress of playing politics at a White House news
conference on Friday, where he said he would back lawmakers in
passing new sanctions "in a day, on a dime" if talks failed, but
said more now would be counterproductive.
"If we're serious about negotiations we've got to create an
atmosphere in which Iran is willing to move in ways that are
uncomfortable for them and contrary to their ideology and rhetoric
and their suspicions of us," Obama said.
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Backing the administration, the Senate Banking Committee did not to
move ahead with a sanctions package passed by the House of
Representatives in July.
The panel's chairman, Tim Johnson, was one of 10 Democratic Senate
committee leaders who wrote to Reid asking to be consulted before
moving ahead with the new sanctions bill.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, who leads the Senate Intelligence
Committee, said Reid had not consulted the committee leaders.
"This is not a positive thing to do at this particular point in
time," Feinstein told Reuters. She said negotiations are working and
called the bill "a clear provocation."
The bill's backers, including Senator Robert Menendez, the chairman
of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, insist that it would
strengthen the U.S. hand in negotiations, by warning Tehran it would
face more crippling sanctions if negotiations to curb its nuclear
program falter.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; editing by G Crosse)
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