U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry and President Barack Obama may sign a 10-year deal with Iran this month,
but if the Congress has its way, that agreement won’t be worth the paper it’s
written on, once Obama is out of office.
All 47 Republican senators banded together to send an open letter about
the deal to Iran this week. The letter warned that nation’s leadership that any
nuclear deal signed by the Obama administration without Congressional support
would be a “mere executive agreement.” As such, the letter went on, “the
next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a
pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.” White House press secretary Josh
Earnest responded that the “letter is a continuation of a partisan strategy”
and said the lawmakers were “interfering in a delicate moment” in the talks,
which are due to resume on March 15. The deadline for an agreement is March
31. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) spoke
with CNN‘s Wolf Blitzer on Monday and explained that the letter to Iran simply
meant, “If this is a bad deal, it will be revisited. We are going to represent
the views of the American people.
“Iran has said it does not
understand our governmental system. This is a civics lesson for Iran, and I think that’s perfectly appropriate… This just says that the deal better
represent U.S. interests as well as Iran interests… If it’s a bad deal, then
there will be repercussions.” The move
was organized by freshman Senator Tom Cotton, but signed by the Senate’s entire
Republican party leadership, as well as three presidential candidates, Ted
Cruz, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio. Because the Congress has been
blocked from having any role to play in the negotiating process, lawmakers are
very frustrated. As long as the agreement does not have to be ratified by
Congress, the Secretary of State or the president can sign the document at the
executive branch level, leaving the legislative branch with no role. President Obama and Secretary of
State Kerry are pushing full-steam-ahead in their negotiations with Iran. They
claim they are close to a good deal that will ensure our security. But every report we see indicates that they
are nearing a bad deal that will endanger America, Israel and the West.
Every major arms-control
agreement in recent history has been submitted to Congress for approval. A deal with Iran should be no different. When it comes to a subject this critical,
President Obama must not have a blank check. Legislation has been introduced
in the Senate to ensure that Congress reviews any nuclear agreement with
Iran. President Obama has vowed to veto
this legislation. Thus this bill must
not only pass, but it must pass by a veto-proof majority of 67 senators or
more! US President Barack Obama said a
letter from Republican senators to Iranian leaders is ironic because, in his
words, some members of Congress appear to want to align themselves with
“hardliners” in Iran Forty-seven Republicans,
including Senate leaders and several potential 2016 presidential candidates,
wrote an open letter to Iran’s leader, warning any deal with Obama might not be
honored in future. In the letter, Republicans said that without congressional
approval, any deal between Iran and the US would be merely an agreement between
Obama and Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Obama said he will
concentrate on seeing whether negotiators with Iran can strike a deal.
Earlier, the White House
responded angrily, accusing the senators of interference and continuing a
“partisan strategy to undermine the president’s ability to conduct foreign
policy and advance our national security.
“It raises significant questions about the intent or the aims of the
authors,” said spokesman Josh Earnest, who accused the senators of establishing
a “back channel” with hardliners in Tehran.
With a March deadline looming, negotiators are furiously working to
agree to a deal that would curb Iran’s nuclear program in return for reducing
Western sanctions. The deal is seen as a key
foreign-policy goal of the Obama administration. Earnest also accused Republicans of
supporting airstrikes against Iran’s facilities that the White House says would
only temporarily set back Iran’s program.
“The rush to war, or at least the rush to the military option that many
Republicans are advocating, is not at all in the best interests of the United
States,” added Earnest.
The Obama administration is
escalating its fiery spat over an open letter sent by a group of senators to
Iran: this time Vice President Joe Biden, who spent 30 years as a leading
senator in the Congress, hit back hard in response. “The letter sent on March 9th by 47
Republican Senators to the Islamic Republic of Iran, expressly designed to
undercut a sitting president in the midst of sensitive international
negotiations, is beneath the dignity of an institution I revere,” Biden said in
a statement late Monday. The letter warned that any deal signed by the
president can be nullified during the next administration. “The next president
could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future
Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time,” the senators
pointed out.
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“This letter, in the guise of a
Constitutional lesson, ignores two centuries of precedent and threatens to
undermine the ability of any future American president, whether Democrat or
Republican, to negotiate with other nations on behalf of the United States,”
Biden contended. “Honorable people can
disagree over policy. But this is no way to make America safe or stronger,” he
said. “In thirty-six years in the United
States Senate, I cannot recall another instance in which Senators wrote
directly to advise another country-much less a longtime foreign adversary –
that the president does not have the constitutional authority to reach a
meaningful understanding with them,” Biden wrote. “This letter sends a highly misleading signal
to friend and foe alike that that our Commander-in-Chief cannot deliver on
America’s commitments – a message that is as false as it is dangerous.”
“The decision to undercut our
president and circumvent our constitutional system offends me as a matter of
principle. As a matter of policy, the letter and its authors have also offered
no viable alternative to the diplomatic resolution with Iran that their letter
seeks to undermine.”
Read more:
Obama: Republicans
aligning with Iranian hardliners | The Times of Israel
http://www.timesofisrael.com/obama-republicans-aligning-with-iranian-hardliners/#ixzz3U0S4KOEQ
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