In continuation of the recent sparring over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to US Congress, the White House and Republican lawmakers have opened another round of confrontation over a letter signed by 47 Senators to undermine President Barack Obama’s authority to conclude a deal with Iran on the nuclear issue.
Hours after the Republican Senators issued their open letter to the Iranian leadership, cautioning them that a deal executed by the Obama administration could be easily undone by Congress or the next President, the White House slammed the Republicans’ “partisan strategy to undermine the President’s ability to conduct foreign policy”.
President Obama himself denounced the Senators’ action, commenting: “I think it’s somewhat ironic to see some members of Congress wanting to make common cause with the hardliners in Iran. It’s an unusual coalition.” In a detailed response, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest cast the letter as a new Republican effort to “throw sand in the gears” of the ongoing P5+1 talks with Iran, commenting it was “not, frankly, the role that our Founding Fathers envisioned for Congress to play when it comes to foreign policy”. Defending the diplomatic option as one that is in the best interests of the US, Earnest said it is designed to see that Iran that does not develop a nuclear weapon – a move that would be backed by intrusive international inspections.
Obama administration officials also insisted that the President doesn’t need congressional approval to make a deal with Iran and that Congress wouldn’t be able to alter the terms of a deal. “There are several inaccuracies in the letter about how things work,” said StateDepartment spokeswoman JenPsaki. Vice President Joe Biden, a six-term Senator, blasted the Republicans for trying to “undercut a sitting President in the midst of sensitive international negotiations”, adding: “In 36 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.”
Iran, too, dismissed the Republican letter as a “propaganda ploy”. As Javad Zarif, the Iranian Foreign Minister put it in a statement: “It is very interesting that while negotiations are still in progress — and while no agreement has been reached — some political pressure groups are so afraid even of the prospect of an agreement that they resort to unconventional methods, unprecedented in diplomatic history.”