The White House said Thursday it is confident the U.N. Security Council will back additional sanctions on Iran in the next week.
Some Middle East observers say the outrage over Israel's deadly raid on an aid flotilla headed to Gaza will detract from U.S. efforts to pass a sanctions resolution.
Thursday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs described progress towards a resolution as robust, and said a vote could be coming soon.
"We've seen sanctions introduced in the U.N. Security Council that we believe will be voted on next week and approved by the U.N. Security Council," he said.
Asked whether the controversy over Gaza could delay the momentum, Gibbs answered: "I think the president and the team here remain confident that...within the next week, we'll have a number that will pass that resolution."
The United States had said Wednesday that it hoped for a Security Council vote by June 21.
Last month, the United States proposed a resolution to impose tough new sanctions on Iran, saying it had the support of the four other permanent veto-wielding Security Council members: Russia, China, the U.K. and France.
The draft would expand an arms embargo and measures against Iran's banking sector, and ban Tehran from sensitive overseas activities like uranium mining and developing ballistic missiles.
Senior U.S. officials said last week they were forging ahead with a resolution without Brazil and Turkey, two non-permanent Security Council members that brokered a nuclear fuel swap deal with Iran aimed at forestalling sanctions.
Western powers fear Iran's atomic program is a cover for a nuclear weapons drive. Iran rejects the charge, saying its work is aimed at peaceful energy use.
Iran is already subject to three sets of United Nations sanctions for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, which is one of the crucial steps towards the production of nuclear energy for civil or military use.